Nancy Lieberman Award

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2014–present) Women's Basketball Coaches Association (2018–present)

The Nancy Lieberman Award, named for Basketball Hall of Fame legend Nancy Lieberman is given to the nation's top collegiate point guard in women's Division I basketball. Sue Bird won the inaugural award in 2000, and later became the first of only three players to have won three Lieberman Awards. Paige Bueckers is the first freshman (first-year player) to win the award in 2021, and only three players have won as sophomores (second-year players)—Bird in 2000 and the other two three-time winners, Sabrina Ionescu in 2018 and Caitlin Clark in 2022.

The award is given to a player who exemplifies "the floor leadership, play-making and ball-handling skills that personified Nancy Lieberman during her career". Originally, voting was performed exclusively by sportswriters. The announcement of the winner has coincided with the Final Four weekend, with an award ceremony the following Wednesday which was hosted by the Detroit Rotary Club at the Detroit Athletic Club through 2013. The award was given annually by the Rotary Club of Detroit in the Award's first 14 years. Beginning with the 2014 award to Odyssey Sims of Baylor University, the Nancy Lieberman Award has been presented by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Final Four proceedings, and is now presented at the annual convention of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).

The 2017–18 season started a new era for the award. Since that season, the WBCA has partnered with the Naismith Hall in the presentation of the award. The two bodies also incorporated the Lieberman Award into a new set of awards known as the "Naismith Starting Five", presented at the WBCA convention (except in 2020, when the convention was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to players at each of the five traditional basketball positions. These awards parallel a previously existing set of men's basketball positional awards also presented by the Hall. The other four are:

• Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard Award
• Cheryl Miller Small Forward Award
• Katrina McClain Power Forward Award
• Lisa Leslie Center Award

The voting body for the Lieberman Award also changed upon its incorporation into the Naismith Starting Five. Each of the Starting Five awards is now determined by a selection committee consisting of Hall of Famers, WBCA coaching members, and media, and headed by the award's namesake. Fan voting through the Hall's website is also incorporated into the selection process.

UConn is the only program that has produced more than one Lieberman Award recipient, having had five players combine for a total of 10 awards (Bird, Diana Taurasi, Renee Montgomery, Moriah Jefferson, and Bueckers). The only other programs with more than one award, Iowa, Notre Dame, and Oregon, have each had a single player win all of that program's awards, respectively Clark (three times), Skylar Diggins (twice) and Ionescu (three times).

Winners

Season	Player	School	Class	Ref.
1999–2000		UConn		url=https://historyofthewnba.wordpress.com/about/	title=Sue Bird	website=History of The WNBA	language=en-US	access-date=2016-04-03}}
2000–01	(2)	UConn
2001–02	* (3)	UConn
2002–03	*	UConn		url=http://thewire.sheknows.com/2010/10/06/diana-taurasi-poses-nude-on-espn-the-magazine-cover/	title=Diana Taurasi Poses Nude on ESPN The Magazine Cover The Wire SheKnows.com Blog	access-date=2016-04-03}}
2003–04	* (2)	UConn
2004–05		LSU
2005–06		North Carolina
2006–07	*	Duke
2007–08		Maryland
2008–09		UConn
2009–10		Oklahoma State
2010–11		Gonzaga
2011–12		Notre Dame		url=http://www.und.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/040613aab.html	title=Skylar Diggins Earns Nancy Lieberman Award For Second Consecutive Season	website=www.und.com	access-date=2016-04-03}}
2012–13	(2)	Notre Dame
2013–14	*	Baylor
2014–15		UConn
2015–16	(2)	UConn
2016–17	*	Washington
2017–18		Oregon
2018–19	* (2)	Oregon
2019–20	* (3)	Oregon
2020–21	*	UConn
2021–22		Iowa
2022–23	* (2)	Iowa
2023–24	* (3)	Iowa
2024–25	* (2)	UConn