ATLANTA – Gonzaga women's basketball senior guard Jill Townsend was named to the 2021 Women's Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Watch List Tuesday, as announced by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
 
Townsend is one of 50 players nationwide, representing 11 conferences, to be named to the preseason list. The Okanogan, Wash., native becomes the first Bulldog to be named to the preseason watch list for the national women's player of the year award.
 
The midseason 30 team will be announced in early February; players who do not make the watch list are still eligible to be selected for the midseason 30 team. Then, the competition will be narrowed down to 10 national semifinalists on March 2, 2021, and four finalists will be named on March 19, 2021. The winner of the 2021 Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy for Women's Player of the Year will be announced on April 3, 2021.
 
Townsend was recently named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List, honoring the top shooting guard in the nation, as well as preseason All-West Coast Conference. She is the reigning WCC Player of the Year and earned All-WCC Academic Honorable Mention for the second-straight year a season ago.
 
Townsend has been a key piece to the Zags last three WCC Regular-Season titles, as well as Gonzaga's consistent spot in both the Associated Press and USA Today/WBCA Coaches polls, headlined by the Zags' highest regular-season ranking every at No. 11/10 last February. Last season, Townsend led the Bulldogs and ranked 14^th in the WCC in scoring at 12.3 points per game, shooting 49.7 percent from the floor which also led the Zags and ranked fifth in the conference.
 
ABOUT THE ATLANTA TIPOFF CLUB
Founded during the 1956-57 season, the Atlanta Tipoff Club is committed to promoting the game of basketball and recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of those who make the game so exciting. The Atlanta Tipoff Club administers the Naismith Awards, the most prestigious national honors in all of college and high school basketball. Named in honor of Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, the family of Naismith Awards annually recognizes the most outstanding men's and women's college and high school basketball players and coaches. Other Naismith Awards are presented to the men's and women's college basketball defensive players of the year, as well as lifetime achievement awards to basketball officials and outstanding contributors to the game. UCLA's Lew Alcindor received the first Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy in 1969, while the late Anne Donovan (Old Dominion) was the inaugural women's recipient in 1983. Corporate partners of the Naismith Awards include Jersey Mike's and Werner Ladder.