Illinois junior forward Berry Wallace has picked up another preseason honor, landing on the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List on Thursday morning.
It’s the second straight day Wallace has shown up on a preseason list. The Pickerington, Ohio, native was already included on the preseason All-Big Ten teams from coaches and media, and she also made the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year Award Top-20 Preseason Watch List.
Wallace was one of 50 players nationally chosen for the Naismith watch list, and one of 14 Big Ten student-athletes to make the cut. Among the six conferences represented, the Big Ten had the most names on the list.
Entering her third season with the Fighting Illini, Wallace is coming off a huge sophomore year. She started all 34 games and averaged 18.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.8, 0.7 steals and 0.4 blocks per game. Her unanimous First Team All-Big Ten season also included a Big Ten-leading 35.7 minutes per game, a team-high 626 points and a spot sixth on the program’s single-season scoring chart.
She also piled up 16 20-point games during the 2025-26 season, a total that ranked fifth in the Big Ten and inside the top 25 nationally in NCAA Division I.
Wallace’s top individual performances included a career-high 29 points against Northwestern, her first career double-double in the season opener, and nine games where she played all 40 minutes.
Her efficiency at the line stood out, too. Wallace shot 86.5 percent from the free throw line, going 122 of 141, which ranked fourth in the Big Ten and eighth on Illinois’ single-season free-throw percentage list.
With this latest recognition, Wallace becomes the fifth player in program history to make the Naismith watch list. Three of those honors have come in the Shauna Green era, along with selections for Tauja Catchings and Susan Blauser in 1999-2000 and Makira Cook in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
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