{"id":660589,"date":"2026-03-03T23:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T04:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/?p=660589"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T04:04:41","slug":"wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"WVU’s Jordan Harrison named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Jan 11, 2026; Ames, Iowa, USA; Against the Iowa State Cyclones, West Virginia Mountaineers guard Jordan Harrison (10) shows some frustrations during the second half at James H. Hilton Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.<\/strong> — After the graduation of JJ Quinerly, Jordan Harrison made sure that one of the Big 12’s top honors remained in the WVU family. The West Virginia senior guard has been named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

Quinerly, who will soon enter her second season with the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, won the award the two previous seasons.<\/p>\n

In addition to the top Big 12 defensive honor, Harrison was one of ten players named to the All-Big 12 first team.<\/p>\n

Harrison leads the Big 12 with 94 steals, helping WVU’s defense that yielded just 60.9 points per game, the second-best mark in the conference.<\/p>\n

Harrison also made the Big 12’s all-defensive team last year as a junior.<\/p>\n

WVU newcomers Gia Cooke and Kierra Wheeler earned honorable mention distinction from the Big 12.<\/p>\n

No. 15 West Virginia (24-6, 14-4 Big 12) opens the Big 12 Tournament Friday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinal round against Arizona, Arizona State or Iowa State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harrison was also named to the All-Big 12 first team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":650943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-660589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-wvu-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nWVU's Jordan Harrison named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year - WV MetroNews<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from wvmetronews.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/660589 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Mon, 09 Mar 2026 12:58:52 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=_-141.html \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WVU's Jordan Harrison named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year - WV MetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harrison was also named to the All-Big 12 first team.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WV MetroNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-04T04:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-04T04:04:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2025\/12\/DSC_0045-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joe Brocato\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joebrowvm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joe Brocato\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/\",\"name\":\"WVU's Jordan Harrison named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year - WV MetroNews\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tk-wv-metro.beforewegolive.dev\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2025\/12\/DSC_0045-1-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-04T04:03:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-04T04:04:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tk-wv-metro.beforewegolive.dev\/#\/schema\/person\/15a64d685851f4441c1ebe697532302b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wvmetronews.com\/2026\/03\/03\/wvus-jordan-harrison-named-big-12-defensive-player-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2025\/12\/DSC_0045-1-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.us-east-005.backblazeb2.com\/wvmn-s3\/2025\/12\/DSC_0045-1-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1700,\"caption\":\"Jordan Harrison looks to disrupt an inbound pass. 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