Chambana Sun

Makira Cook, a fifth-year guard for Illinois, has been named to the 2024-25 Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year Watch List. This marks the second consecutive year that Cook has received this recognition. The announcement was made by the Naismith Awards on Monday morning.

Cook is among 50 women's basketball players nationwide and one of 14 athletes from the Big Ten Conference to be included in this prestigious preseason list. A Preseason All-Big Ten honoree, she led the Fighting Illini with an average of 16.4 points per game last season and achieved double figures in 27 out of her 31 appearances during the 2023-24 campaign. Additionally, Cook averaged a team-high 4.4 assists per game.

Despite missing three games last season, Cook surpassed the 500-point mark for a second consecutive year, reaching over 1,000 points at Illinois and more than 1,600 points throughout her collegiate career. She was also instrumental in leading Illinois to its first-ever postseason title at the inaugural WBIT championship, where she was named Most Outstanding Player after scoring 27 points in the final and setting a new program single-tournament scoring record with 105 points.

Cook's performance earned her All-Big Ten honors for two consecutive seasons. She shot 40% from the field, made 35.4% of her three-point attempts, and had an impressive free-throw percentage of 85.4% as a senior.

Cook joins Tauja Catchings and Susan Blauser as one of only three players in Illinois program history to make it onto the Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year preseason watch list.

The watch list includes notable players such as Georgia Amoore from Kentucky, Alexis Markowski from Nebraska, Sarah Andrews from Baylor, Rayah Marshall from USC, among others.

Players have opportunities to play their way onto or off this list throughout the upcoming season.