A’ja Wilson earns preseason All-American honors surrounded by UConn players

South Carolina women’s basketball star A’ja Wilson has earned one last preseason award before her senior season starts, as the Associated Press made her a unanimous selection to its preseason All-American team on Tuesday.

Wilson has been named a first team All-American by the AP in the past two seasons. If she earns the same honor this year, she will be the fifth player in Gamecock history to win the award three times.

Joining Wilson on this year’s preseason All-American squad were Ohio State guard Kelsey Mitchell and three players from No. 1 Connecticut: guard Katie Lou Samuelson, forward Gabby Williams and forward Napheesa Collier. It is the first time in the history of the team to include three players from the same program.

Wilson was also a preseason All-American last season and received 31 of 33 votes for the team. This year, she was a unanimous choice, the only one on the the team.

Coming into the 2017-2018 season, Wilson is widely considered to be the national player of the year favorite. She has also been named to Sports Illustrated and College Sports Madness’s preseason All-American teams, and SEC coaches and media selected her as the conference’s preseason player of the year.

In USC’s lone exhibition of the preseason, Wilson recorded 16 points, five rebounds and four blocks against Coker in 20 minutes of play.

However, Wilson is not the only Gamecock getting preseason hype for an award: fellow senior Bianca Cuevas-Moore was named to the preseason watch list for the Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the nation’s top point guard, on Monday.

Wilson, Cuevas-Moore and the Gamecocks will open their regular season this Friday at 7 p.m. against Alabama State in Colonial Life Arena

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 12:07 PM with the headline "A’ja Wilson earns preseason All-American honors surrounded by UConn players."