LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Women's Basketball sophomore Francesca Schiro has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2027 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats. Schiro is one of 25 players nationwide selected to the watch list and one of three representatives from the Metro Conference.
 
Schiro becomes the first player in Siena Women's Basketball history to earn preseason watch list recognition for the Becky Hammon Award, which was first presented in 2020. South Dakota State's Brooklyn Meyer captured the most recent honor in 2026.
 
The recognition follows a historic debut season for Schiro, who emerged as one of the nation's top freshmen in 2025-26. The sophomore led Siena in scoring with 17.1 points per game, ranking second in the MAAC (now Metro) and fifth nationally among freshmen while finishing among the top 80 scorers across Division I.
 
Schiro elevated her production in conference play, leading all conference players with 18.5 points per game. She recorded 11 20-point performances during the season, including eight in league action, while ranking fourth in the conference in assists at 3.5 per game and sixth in steals at 1.9 per game. She shot 44.3 percent from the field.
 
The freshman's standout campaign included a season-high 32 points at Niagara on Dec. 19, making her one of just nine conference players to score at least 30 points in a game during the 2025-26 season. She also posted a season-best 12 rebounds against Mount St. Mary's on Jan. 1 and nine assists at Manhattan on Feb. 8.
 
Schiro earned a host of individual accolades, including unanimous MAAC Rookie of the Year honors, ECAC Rookie of the Year, Second Team All-MAAC recognition, and unanimous selection to the MAAC All-Rookie Team. She was also named Siena Athletics Female Rookie of the Year and earned USBWA Co-Freshman of the Week honors on Feb. 10. She was recognized twice as the Mid-Major Madness Player of the Week and collected a league-high seven MAAC Rookie of the Week awards, tying for the second-most in program history.
 
Entering her sophomore season, Schiro was named to the Preseason All-Metro First Team. She returns as a key piece of a Siena squad that welcomes back four starters from the 2025-26 campaign.
 
Award Eligibility & Schedule 
To be eligible for this award, players must compete in a conference deemed to be "mid-major." The following conferences are considered high-major for the purposes of this award and thus ineligible: ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, and SEC. Players competing in the re-formed Pac-12 are eligible. The 15-player midseason watch list will be announced in January, followed by 10 semifinalists announced in February. The five finalists will be announced in early March, with the winner announced around the Final Four. The list is fluid, and players may play their way on or off it over the course of the season. 
 
About Becky Hammon 
Hammon was a three-time All-American at Colorado State and led the Rams to the Sweet 16 in 1999. She signed with the New York Liberty in 1999 and was traded to San Antonio in 2007, where she played the rest of her WNBA career. Hammon retired in 2014 as a six-time All-Star and a two-time All-WNBA First Team honoree. In 2016, she was named one of the top 20 players in WNBA history and was named to the W25 in 2021. Hammon became the first woman to serve as a full-time NBA assistant coach when she joined the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. She later became the first woman to serve as head coach in NBA Summer League and the first woman to be part of an NBA All-Star coaching staff. Hammon is the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces and has won the 2022, 2023 and 2025 WNBA Championships. 
 
About Her Hoop Stats 
Her Hoop Stats was founded in 2017 to unlock better insight about women's basketball at all levels. We began as a statistics site focused on providing consistent, reliable, and easy-to-access data about women's basketball for both mobile and desktop environments. Her Hoop Stats has expanded to become a leading independent voice in the women's game, providing content through our newsletter, podcast network, YouTube channel, and social media accounts (Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram).