WKU Lady Topper Basketball picked up three of the league’s top individual honors on Monday as Chastity Gooch was named the Conference USA Player of the Year, Kendall Noble was named the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year and Michelle Clark-Heard was named the Conference USA Coach of the Year, it was announced by the league offices.
The teams were selected in a vote of the league’s head coaches, a media member representing each institution and each school’s sports information director.
Gooch, the Conference USA Player of the Year, led the Lady Toppers in scoring this season with 17.2 points per outing and 7.1 rebounds per game. She shot an impressive 51.1 percent from the field, including a 40.0 percent clip from behind the three-point arc and a 77.3 percent mark at the free throw line. Gooch currently stands in fourth place on the WKU career scoring list, third in rebounding, fourth in blocks and fourth in steals.
Gooch, of Franklin, becomes the fifth player in program history to be named an overall league Player of the Year, the first since 2007-08 when Crystal Kelly earned the honor in the Sun Belt Conference and first ever in Conference USA. Gooch joins Lillie Mason of Olmstead (1986), Shala Reese (2003), Tiffany Porter-Talbert (2005) and Kelly as league Player of the Year winners from WKU. Gooch was also named a First Team All-Conference and All-Defensive Team selection yesterday.
It is the third straight year that Gooch has earned a league individual honor as she was the two-time defending Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
Clark-Heard, the Conference USA Coach of the Year, led her alma mater to a school record and Conference USA record 27 wins during the regular season. She also became just the 10th coach in NCAA history to lead their alma mater into the Associated Press Top 25 rankings as both a player and coach when the Lady Toppers were ranked in January.
It is the second time in three years that Clark-Heard has been named a conference Coach of the Year. She was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 2012-13 after engineering the biggest turnaround in the league's history by turning a 9-21 team into a 22-win team.
Clark-Heard is one of three coaches in program history to earn a conference Coach of the Year recognition with her 2014-15 honor being the eighth such selection since 1983 for the Lady Topper bench bosses. Paul Sanderford and Mary Taylor-Cowles each earned the honor of league Coach of the Year three times.
Noble, the Defensive Player of the Year, set a WKU record for steals in a season with 95. Her 55 steals in league play tied the mark for a sophomore. Noble is one of the two players in the nation currently averaging at least 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals this season. She is currently averaging 11.1 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.2 steals per game with an assist to turnover ratio of 2:1.
Noble's selection marks the third straight season that WKU has had a player named a conference's Defensive Player of the Year as Gooch was a two-time winner of the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year award in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Last season, Noble was named the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year.
WKU will open play in the 2015 Conference USA Championships on Thursday, March 12 in the quarterfinals of the tournament at the Bartow Arena on the campus of UAB at 5 p.m. CT. WKU’s opening round matchup will be against No. 8 Charlotte or No. 9 Marshall. Those teams face off on .Wednesday
First round and quarterfinal games in the Conference USA Championships will be televised by the American Sports Network with Leah Secondo and Nate Ross before CBS Sports Network takes over for the semifinals and finals with Ed Cohen and Julianne Viani on the call. All Lady Topper games will also be available on the radio and at wkusports.tv with Barry Williams on the call.
The Lady Toppers are the top seed in the 2015 tournament after winning the 2015 Conference USA Regular Season Championship. WKU is attempting to win back-to-back conference titles for the first time since winning three straight tournament titles in 1991 through 1993. The Lady Toppers won last year’s Sun Belt Conference Championships with a 61-60 win over Arkansas State after erasing a 14-point second half deficit to get the win and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the 17th time in program history.
The Lady Toppers (27-4, 16-2) enter the Conference USA Championships having won nine straight games, 24 of 26, 37 of 42. They are 51-13 over the last two seasons.