As Iowa women's basketball prepares for an exciting 2026-27 campaign, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame named third-year center Ava Heiden as one of 20 players nationwide appearing on the 2027 Lisa Leslie Award preseason watch list.
The Sherwood, Oregon, native enters her third season with the Hawkeyes after a breakout 2025-26 campaign in which she averaged 18.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while shooting 64.1% from the field. In season totals, Heiden finished with 612 points and 246 rebounds, ranking third and seventh, respectively, on Iowa's second-year single-season lists.
You already know 🤫@ava_heiden x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/I58IGFGuVP
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) October 30, 2026
Along with her impressive stat line, the 6-foot-4 center's nine double-doubles last season helped
earn her first-team All-Big Ten honors from both the coaches and media, as well as honorable mention All-America recognition from the Associated Press, USBWA and WBCA. Earlier this month, Heiden was named to the Coaches and Media Preseason All-Big Ten teams and the Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year Watch List.
The annual award recognizes the top center in NCAA Division I women's basketball, and Heiden is joined by six other players from the Big Ten.
In program history, Megan DiLeo is the only Iowa player to have won the Lisa Leslie Award, which she earned in 2019.
Fan voting for the award begins Friday, Oct. 30. After that, the 20-player watch list will narrow to 10 candidates in February, and five finalists will be announced in March. For more information, visit hoophallawards.com.
2027 Lisa Leslie Award Preseason Watch List
- Kate Koval – Baylor
- Arianna Roberson – Duke
- Ava Heiden – Iowa
- Clara Strack – Kentucky
- Amiya Joyner – Louisville
- Ashley Sofilkanich – Michigan
- Gracie Merkle – Minnesota
- Sharnecce Currie-Jelks – Murray State
- Ciera Toomey – North Carolina
- Elsa Lemmilä – Ohio State
- Audi Crooks – Oklahoma State
- Uche Izoje – Syracuse
- Clara Silva – TCU
- Breya Cunningham – Texas
- Sienna Betts – UCLA
- Jana El Alfy – UConn
- Aaliyah Del Rosario – Vanderbilt
- Tilda Trygger – Washington
- Alex Covill – Washington State
- Khyala Ngodo – West Virginia
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa women's basketball's Ava Heiden named to Lisa Leslie Award Watch List
