Jared Dudley and Candice Wiggins

San Diego is known for sending some of the best high school football and baseball players in the nation on to college to win major awards.

But other than Bill Walton at UCLA from 1972-74, basketball has been in the shadows of football and baseball. Jared Dudley, though, has written another distinguished chapter for San Diego basketball in his All-American career at Boston College.

As a senior in the 2006-07 season for the Eagles, the 6-foot-7 forward was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year as well as a second-team All-American by The Associated Press. He is the first San Diegan to earn the prestigious ACC award.

Dudley was ranked among the conference leaders in scoring (fifth, 19.5), field goal percentage (second, .562), rebounding (third, 8.4) and minutes played (first, 38.9). BC advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament before falling to Georgetown, which advanced to the Final Four.

Dudley arrived at Boston College lightly recruited, although he led San Diego’s Horizon High to back-to-back CIF State Division IV titles and earned All-State honors.

Dudley was a unanimous pick to the All-Big East Rookie team, earned first-team All-Big East as a sophomore and, after Boston College moved to the ACC, he earned second-team All-ACC as a junior before his Player of the Year honors.

Dudley was later drafted in the first round by the Charlotte Bobcats as the 22nd pick overall. He playing a reserve role in his rookie year, but he has made some starts in his rookie year.

This is Dudley’s first time honored as a Star of the Year. He is a three-time Star of the Month.

CANDICE WIGGINS, Amateur

Basketball, Stanford, La Jolla Country Day alumnus

Other San Diego high school girls have earned All-American honors, including Point Loma legend Terri Mann, but Candice Wiggins’ career has continued to ascend at the collegiate and international levels. She might end up considered the Bill Walton of San Diego women’s basketball.

Wiggins’ junior season at Stanford in the 2006-07 season was her third straight year of claiming All-American honors, but it turned out to be only the beginning for the 5-foot-11 guard.

In the summer of 2007, she was named USA Basketball’s Female Athlete of the Year after she led two U.S. national teams to gold medals. She was a starter on both the Under-21 World Championships team in Moscow and at the Pan American Games team in Brazil.

As a freshman at Stanford, Wiggins also was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year. She was the first freshman to win the Pac-10 honor and only the third to earn the award in a Division I conference.

She arrived at Stanford as one of the nation’s top recruits as an prep All-American that led La Jolla Country Day to two CIF State Division V titles as a freshman and sophomore.

Through the start of her senior year at Stanford in the 2007-08 season, she led the nationally ranked Cardinal in scoring with a 17.1 points a game. She was named on Dec. 17 as the Pac-10 Player of the Week. Wiggins’ father, the late Alan Wiggins, was the catalyst of the Padres’ 1984 National League championship team as a second baseman and leadoff batter.

Wiggins is a two-time Star of the Year, having also been honored for her freshman season in the 2005-06 season. She is a seven-time Star of the Month.