FARMINGTON, Utah (November 10, 2020) - After dominating the Big Sky Conference throughout last season, Northern Arizona University's
Khiarica Rasheed earned the conference's Preseason Most Valuable Player award on Tuesday. The Big Sky's Preseason All-Conference Team is voted on by the conference's head coaches, sports information directors and select media members.
Scoring 18.9 points per contest in 20 conference games last season, Rasheed had no equal within the Big Sky. The scoring total came in at 1.6 points per game more than any other player produced, and Rasheed did so while hitting 49.6% of her shots from the field, the second-best total in the Big Sky.
Rasheed also finished fourth in the Big Sky in rebounding, averaging 8.2 per game during the conference schedule, and easily led in free-throw attempts and makes with 96 and 126 respectively. Hitting 76.2% from the line, Rasheed also finished 14th among all players in the conference.
"It is just a testament to the hard work I have put in over the years, but we want something greater here, a championship," Rasheed said. "So the job's not done."
No player in NAU history has earned the honor of Big Sky Conference Preseason MVP or has been a member of the preseason All-Big Sky Conference team dating back to the Big Sky Conference's initial team in 2015.
"For her, the work that she put it every year in the offseason and I think that our coaches did with her player development has been huge," said NAU head coach
Loree Payne. "You see it every year, she adds an element to her game. For her to be Preseason MVP doesn't surprise me at all."
Idaho's Gina Marxen and Beyonce Bea, Montana State's Darian White, Idaho State's Dora Goles and Northern Colorado's Alisha Davis joined Rasheed on the 2020-21 preseason all-conference team. Rasheed and Marxen are the lone returners from last season's All-Big Sky First Team, while Goles was named to the second team in March. Bea landed on the third team, and both White and Davis were honorable mentions. White also won the Big Sky Conference's Freshman of the Year award, with Bea and Davis combining to produce a strong freshman class last season.
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