Site icon Sports360AZ

Pac-12 men’s basketball preview: Our picks for all-conference honors and postseason awards Arizona in position to sweep COY, POY and DPOY awards

Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin (0) (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin (0) (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

The Hotline’s projections for Pac-12 postseason awards and honors …

Coach of the Year: Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd. Impressively close to locking up the award before the calendar turns. (There’s nobody close at this point.) As long as the Wildcats finish in the top three, Lloyd will be tough to beat.

Player of the Year: Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin. The top NBA prospect in the conference is the early favorite for POY based on playmaking, efficiency, and sample size. We considered UCLA’s Johnny Juzang and USC’s Isaiah Mobley.

Freshman of the Year: Stanford’s Harrison Ingram. An impressive start (12.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and the paucity of competition — the rookie class has been low-impact thus far — make Ingram the smart pick.

Newcomer of the Year: USC’s Boogie Ellis. The Memphis transfer is contributing with points, rebounds, assists and general elevation of the collective. Also considered: Cal’s Jordan Shepherd, WSU’s Michael Flowers and Washington’s Terrell Brown.

Defensive Player of the Year: Arizona’s Christian Koloko. The 7-foot-1 sophomore is averaging 3.3 blocks per game, along with an incalculable number of alterations. Also considered: Colorado’s Elijah Parquet.

All-Conference

First Team
Oregon G Will Richardson
Arizona G/F Bennedict Mathurin
UCLA G/F Johnny Juzang
Colorado F Jabari Walker
USC F Isaiah Mobley

Second Team
UCLA G Tyger Campbell
Cal F Andre Kelly
UCLA F Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Arizona F Azuolas Tubelis
Arizona C Christian Koloko

Third Team
Washington State G Michael Flowers
Washington G Terrell Brown
USC F Chevez Goodwin
Colorado F Evan Battey
Utah C Branden Carlson

All-Freshman

Colorado G KJ Simpson
Utah G Lazar Stefanovic
Stanford F Harrison Ingram
UCLA F Peyton Watson
Washington State F Mouhamed Gueye

All-Newcomer

(transfers only; intra-conference transfers included)

First team
Washington G Terrell Brown (from Arizona)
USC G Boogie Ellis (from Memphis)
Cal G Jordan Shepherd (from Charlotte)
Washington State G Michael Flowers (from South Alabama)
Utah F Both Gach (from Minnesota)

Second Team
Arizona State G DJ Horne (from Illinois State)
Utah G David Jenkins (from UNLV)
Oregon F Quincy Guerrier (from Syracuse)
Washington F Emmitt Matthews Jr. (from West Virginia)
UCLA C Myles Johnson (from Rutgers)

All-Defense

Colorado G Elijah Parquet
Washington G Terrell Brown
UCLA F Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Utah C Branden Carlson
Arizona C Christian Koloko


Support the Hotline: Receive three months of unlimited access for just 99 cents. Yep, that’s 99 cents for 90 days, with the option to cancel anytime. Details are here, and thanks for your support.


*** Send suggestions, comments and tips (confidentiality guaranteed) to pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com or call 408-920-5716

*** Follow me on Twitter: @WilnerHotline

*** Pac-12 Hotline is not endorsed or sponsored by the Pac-12 Conference, and the views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conference.

Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP top-25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree.

Exit mobile version