Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu Wins 2nd Consecutive John R. Wooden Award

Sabrina Ionescu was not able to secure Oregon's first women's college basketball national championship because the season was canceled on March 12 by COVID-19.

But she did snag the John R. Wooden Award, given annually to the nation's best collegiate basketball player, for the second straight year.

Per ESPN's Graham Hays: "Ionescu is the sixth woman to win the Wooden multiple times, joining Seimone Augustus, Brittney Griner, Maya Moore, Candace Parker and Breanna Stewart. She is also the fifth player to win the award in back-to-back seasons. She and former LSU standout Augustus are the two repeat winners who did not win national championships."

On the men's side, Ralph Sampson is the only back-to-back winner. 

The senior guard averaged 17.5 points and 9.1 assists per game for the No. 2 Ducks in 2019-20.

Ionescu had announced last April that she would be coming back for her senior 2019-20 campaign in an open letter published by the Players' Tribune:

"I won't predict exactly how far we're going to go….. but I'll just say this," she wrote. "We have unfinished business."

The Ducks lost in the Final Four to eventual champion Baylor in 2018-19, leaving Ionescu and Company hungry for the 2019-20 national title. At 31-2 and riding a 19-game winning streak, Oregon was primed to complete that mission before the season was canceled.

Ionescu addressed the abrupt ending in an Instagram caption, calling this "the toughest year of my life":

The 22-year-old had struggled off the court with the sudden death of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, her mentor, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, on Jan. 26:

Ionescu spoke at Kobe and Gianna's memorial at the Staples Center on Feb. 24 before setting NCAA Division I history in a 74-66 win at Stanford that night:

The California native's list of all-time accomplishments is too long to include here in-full, and she will almost undoubtedly add No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA draft to her resume on April 17.