Basketball players Rachel Banham of the Gophers and Denzel Valentine of Michigan State were named the Female and Male Athletes of the Year in the Big Ten, the conference announced.
Banham, now playing for Connecticut in the WNBA, is the third Gopher to win the women's award. The others were swimmer Gretchen Hegener in 1997 and hockey player Amanda Kessel in 2013.
Banham finished as the Big Ten's career scoring leader in women's basketball with 3,093 points and averaged a record 30.6 points in conference games as a senior.
• Banham and gymnast Lindsay Mable, another former Gopher, are two of the 231 Division I nominees for 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year.
