Iowa women’s basketball junior Caitlin Clark is the Big Ten Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, the conference announced Monday.

And head coach Lisa Bluder wasn’t surprised by the announcement.

“I think she’s the best player in America, so for me it was a no-brainer,” Bluder said at a media availability on Tuesday. “It’s kind of anticlimactic to me that she gets this honor. But at the same time, I respect the honor and I know how hard it is to get it. And to get in back-to-back years is wonderful.”

Clark averaged 27.2 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 7.4 assists during the regular season — joining Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden as the only players to average those numbers or higher in a single season.

Iowa has had the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Player of the Year for five of the past six seasons, and Clark is the first player since former Hawkeye Megan Gustafson to win the award twice — Gustafson earned the honor in 2018 and 2019.

“It just shows the stability of our program, the great recruits that we’re getting,” Bluder said. “It really is exciting that we can show recruits that you come to Iowa and you can be developed into one of the very best players in the country.”

Both Clark and fifth-year senior center Monika Czinano were also named to the coaches and media All-Big Ten first team. Clark was a unanimous selection from both coaches and media, while Czinano was unanimous from coaches.

Czinano averaged 17.2 points and 6.5 rebounds in the regular season. She ranks fourth in the nation with a 66.45 shooting percentage from the field.

Czinano has earned first-team All-Big Ten honors each of the last four years.

“That’s an amazing accomplishment, that’s consistency over that period of time,” Bluder said. “Obviously, she’s very deserving, you know, being one of the top field goal percentage shooters in the country, but really happy for Monika.”

The Hawkeyes brought home another individual award on Tuesday, as freshman Hannah Stuelke was named the Sixth Player of the Year.

Stuelke averaged 7.2 points in just 13 minutes per game off the bench, adding in 4.3 rebounds.

“I think she’s very excited,” Bluder said. “Hannah just doesn’t realize, we’ve said this over and over again, how good she is. But these kinds of things, these kinds of acknowledgments by not only me and her teammates, but by other coaches around the league, I think that speaks volumes.”

Stuelke did not make the All-Big Ten Freshman team, however. She has played in every game for the Hawkeyes this season but hasn’t started a contest.

“It was kind of strange she wasn’t on the All-Big Ten Freshman team,” Bluder said. “I think she was maybe one person shy. The only reason, in my opinion, that she wasn’t on there is because she didn’t start for us. All the other five were starters on their teams. So I think by virtue of just pure statistics,  no. but she could start for a lot of teams in the Big Ten.”

Senior McKenna Warnock, who was Iowa’s third-leading scorer with 10.9 points per game, notched an All-Big Ten honorable mention recognition.

“I think she was a little bit better than that, but I know there’s a lot of great players in this league,” Bluder said. “I’m happy for for McKenna to be named to honorable mention.”