If you’ve been watching Ole Miss women’s basketball this year, Cotie McMahon landing on the Wooden Award Late Midseason Top 20 Watch List doesn’t come as a surprise.
It feels more like confirmation and the national spotlight is simply catching up to what she’s been doing in Oxford for months.
The senior forward has been on this stage before, making the late‑midseason list last year at Ohio State. In fact, she’s steadily climbed the Wooden Award ladder every season, inching deeper into the process as her game has grown.
This year, though, she’s playing with a level of consistency that makes her inclusion feel especially earned.
McMahon has collected national recognition at a pace that almost makes it hard to keep track. She’s on the Cheryl Miller Award Top 10 Watch List, the Naismith Trophy Watch List, and has picked up a dozen individual honors this season alone. None of it feels inflated because her production backs it up.
Through 24 games, McMahon is averaging 19.8 points per game on 48.1 percent shooting, good for fourth in the SEC. She’s added 5.9 rebounds per game and leads the Rebels in minutes, which says plenty about how much this staff trusts her on both ends of the floor.
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And when the schedule toughened, she didn’t fade. She elevated.
In SEC play, she’s up to 21.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, and she’s the only player in the conference to earn SEC Player of the Week three times during league action. That’s not just simply a hot streak.
Her presence has been central to Ole Miss finding its footing offensively, with the Rebels averaging 74.2 points per game. She’s been the steadying force, the go‑to scorer, and the player who rarely leaves the floor.
So yes, the Wooden Award committee took notice. But really, this is just the latest acknowledgment of a season that has been building toward this kind of recognition.
McMahon isn’t just having a good year. She’s putting together the kind of campaign that demands attention, whether you’re watching from Oxford or anywhere else.
The Wooden Award
Selected by a panel of national college basketball experts, the list comprises 20 student-athletes who are frontrunners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball: the Wooden Award® All-American Team and the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player.
The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2026 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year. Players not selected for the late midseason list remain eligible for inclusion on the Wooden Award® National Ballot. The National Ballot will feature 15 top players who have demonstrated to their universities that they meet or exceed the Wooden Award qualifications.
Wooden Award® voters will be invited to rank 10 of the 15 players on the ballot in order of preference when voting opens during the NCAA Tournament. Voters will also consider performances in the tournament’s early rounds, players’ contributions to their teams, and their character. The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced during the week of the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight.
2025-26 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Late Midseason Top 20 Watch List
- Raegan Beers – Oklahoma
- Lauren Betts – UCLA
- Mikayla Blakes – Vanderbilt
- Madison Booker – Texas
- Jaloni Cambridge – Ohio State
- Aaliyah Chavez – Oklahoma
- Audi Crooks – Iowa State
- Joyce Edwards – South Carolina
- Azzi Fudd – UConn
- Milaysia Fulwiley – LSU
- Rori Harmon – Texas
- Hannah Hidalgo – Notre Dame
- Flau’jae Johnson – LSU
- Ta’Niya Latson – South Carolina
- Cotie McMahon – Ole Miss
- Olivia Miles – TCU
- Olivia Olson – Michigan
- Clara Strack – Kentucky
- Sarah Strong – UConn
- Mikaylah Williams – LSU
