I’m not here to alarm you (for a second time), but the Summit League regular season has passed the halfway point – and then some. However, don’t worry, there is good news. There is still plenty of basketball to be played and plenty of storylines to play out and of course, that includes the great sparkplug of conversation: the League’s individual awards. 
 
To celebrate the beginning of the downhill stretch to Sioux Falls, here is how I, one solitary writer, see the awards shaping up at present.
 
Player of the Year
The Pick: Myah Selland 
In the Conversation: Hannah Cooper, Heaven Hamling, Grace Larkins, Kacie Borowicz
 
It takes a special player to stand out from a sparkling field. 
 
Cooper has exploded as a scorer in Kelsi Musick’s up-tempo system, Hamling has been the tip of the spear on a good North Dakota State team and Larkins is a walking triple-double threat. Yet the award seems firmly within the grasp of Selland, the best player on the team that is running away with the regular season race. 
 
What is there left to say about the Cheryl Miller Award contender? Well, plenty. Her numbers have begun approaching what they were before injuries wiped out her season in 2020-21, and she’s maintaining the improved outside shooting prowess she showed a year ago. There isn’t anything she can’t do on the floor, and at this point it would take something remarkable to not see her lifting the award just as she did two seasons ago. 
 
Coach of the Year
The Pick: Aaron Johnston
In the Conversation: Jory Collins 
 
We (the royal we) took an in-depth look at this race last week, and nothing over the past eight days seems to have changed the trajectory of the COY race. 
 
Defensive Player of the Year
The Pick: Paiton Burckhard 
In the Conversation: Myah Selland, Emily Behnke, Heaven Hamling
 
A notoriously hard award to reckon with since beauty can be in the eye of the beholder when it comes to defense, and there aren’t those traditional stats to fall back on. Part of SDSU’s dominance has been its defense, and that’s been driven by starters like Selland and Tori Nelson, as well as players like Kallie Theisen and Brooklyn Meyer in shorter spurts off the bench. 
 
Could Selland be the pick here? Absolutely, but as we’ve already given her POY we’ll spread the love and go with another tremendous defensive player in Burckhard. The Aberdeen native has one of the best defensive ratings in the conference according to herhoopstats.com, is pulling down nearly four defensive rebounds per game and anchoring the stingiest defense in the league. Special mention goes to Behnke and Hamling as the engines of an improved Bison defense that has them in the thick of the race for the second seed. You could throw Elle Evans into that list as well, but more below on the impact she’s had in Fargo.
 
Newcomer of the Year
The Pick: E’Lease Stafford
In the Conversation: Aaliyah Stanley, Ally Haar 
 
Could this award be coming back to the City of Fountains? 
 
It hasn’t been the debut season that Dionnah Jackson-Durrett likely expected, but E’Lease Stafford has been more than a bright spot. The Utah State transfer is the top-scoring newcomer in the league and, like fellow newcomer Ally Haar at Denver, vital to how her team operates offensively. Stafford has also shown and outside shooting aspect to her game that had not been on display at USU or ETSU.
 
Haar has been the heartbeat of the Pioneers’ offense, averaging 35 minutes per game. Stanley (12.0 ppg) has been a dynamic scorer in an Omaha team that has hit a recent lull, but will look to finish the conference season as strong as it started it. 
 
Freshman of the Year
The Pick: Elle Evans 
In the Conversation: Emma Smith, Carley Duffney, Walker Demers, Addi Brownfield
 
For me, things are tightening up in this race.
 
Evans should be in contention not only for this award, but all-league honors as well. She’s been crucial from the jump for the Bison, adding scoring, rebounding and, maybe most importantly, defense to Jory Collins’ squad. Here is what her coach said about her earlier this year. 
 
“You could really see it coming in, there are things about her like her size and length and athleticism, and her mentality and how fast she picks things up,” he said. “Her commitment to the defensive end is just phenomenal for a young player.”
 
A month ago, she was running away with it. She still might be, but there are hard charges from South Dakota’s Duffney and Denver’s Smith. Duffney  is on a tear, scoring in double figures in her last nine, including huge scoring outings in recent weeks against Omaha and Western Illinois. For her part, Smith has scored double figures in four straight, including 23 points last night against WIU. Special mention goes to Demers, who has been effective in limited minutes, pulling down five rebounds in just over 15 minutes per game.