The NCAA News - News and Features

January 20, 1997

Rizzotti wins Honda-Broderick Cup

The University of Connecticut women's basketball team, accustomed to winning streaks on the court, now has captured a second consecutive Honda-Broderick Cup.

Point guard Jennifer Rizzotti, who led the Huskies to a 34-4 season and the semifinals of the 1996 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship, was named winner of the Honda-Broderick Cup at a January 13 banquet in Nashville, Tennessee. Last year, the honor went to Connecticut's Rebecca Lobo.

The award is part of the year-long Honda awards program, which recognizes collegiate athletics achievement among women.

Rizzotti is only the second Big East student-athlete to earn both conference player of the year and scholar-athlete of the year awards. In 1995-96, she scored in double figures 22 times in 38 games and had a two-to-one assists-to-turnover ratio while setting single-season school records in assists (222) and steals (112).

Rizzotti is the only player in Connecticut women's basketball history to score more than 1,000 points (1,540) and register more than 500 assists (637). She started every game of her four-year career.

She earned all-America recognition after her junior and senior seasons and was selected to the District I all-academic team three times. Off the court, she has been involved in a number of community-service projects. She was chosen to do a public-service announcement for the NCAA's anti-drug campaign.

Other candidates for this year's award were Marisa Baena, University of Arizona, golf; Kathy Butler, University of Wisconsin, Madison, cross country; Jill Craybas, University of Florida, tennis; Jenny Dalton, Arizona, softball; Jenny Hansen, University of Kentucky, gymnastics; D'Andre Hill, Louisiana State University, track and field; Shannon MacMillan, University of Portland, soccer; Kristine Quance, University of Southern California, swimming; Carole Thate, James Madison University, field hockey; and Allison Weston, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,
volleyball.

Also honored at the banquet with Honda Awards were basketball player Jennifer Clarkson of Abilene Christian University, Division II (Clarkson also received an NCAA Top VIII Award the previous night at the NCAA honors dinner) and volleyball player Shelley Swan of Washington University (Missouri), Division III. Corinne Carson of Marymount University (Virginia), who returned to intercollegiate basketball after a liver transplant, received the Honda Inspiration Award.