Navy Midshipmen Basketball Star Selected to National Player Award Top 50 List

The Navy Midshipmen women’s basketball team has one of the top players in the country and is up for one of the nation’s top awards.

Nov 28, 2020; Annapolis, Maryland, USA; A general view of the Navy Midshipmen logo on a water tower near the stadium is seen before the game between the Navy Midshipmen and the Memphis Tigers at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. / Scott Taetsch-Imagn Images

Navy Midshipmen women’s basketball star Zanai Barnett-Gay was one of 50 players selected to the 2024-25 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Midseason Watch List, which was released on Monday.

The award is presented annually to the top women’s basketball player in the country and is sponsored by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

The 5-8 sophomore guard has driven the Midshipmen’s success all season, as they enter the week in a tie for third place in Patriot League action.

Entering action this week she is averaging a team-leading 19.2 points per game, along with 7.9 rebounds. She also has 69 assists and 51 steals. She has been selected the Patriot League player of the week three times this campaign.

The awards are nothing new for the Glenn Dale, Md., product. As a freshman last season, she was named the Patriot League rookie of the year, all-Patriot League first-team, all-Patriot League defensive team and all-Patriot League rookie team. She was named Patriot League rookie of the week seven times, player of the week twice and USBWA Tamika Catchings national freshman of the week once.

She was also named ECAC rookie of the year.

She is well on her way to another stellar campaign and has already put together one of the most consequential careers in Navy women’s basketball — and she has two more seasons left to compete.

Navy does not play during the week and returns to Alumni Hall for a home game against Lafayette on Saturday at 4 p.m. eastern.

The award winner will be announced during the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Tampa April 4-6.

The award is named for Drysdale, who was one of women’s basketball’s true pioneers. As a player, she dominated at UCLA from 1974-78 when the game was governed by the AIAW.

She was a four-time all-American, recorded the first quadruple-double in women’s college basketball history against Stephen F. Austin in 1978, and won a silver medal in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

She was the first overall pick in the 1978 WBL Draft, a fledgling basketball league, but she also signed a pro contract with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers in 1979.

She later moved into television commentary for more than two decades, worked in the front office for both the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury and is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame.

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