Pac-12 Weekly Honors: Week One
Posted by AMurawa on November 14th, 2011With one (relatively short) week of college basketball in the books, it’s time to hand out our weekly honors. Every Monday throughout the season, we’ll hand out a Pac-12 Player of the Week, Newcomer of the Week and Team of the Week award for the best performances from schools within the conference. Let’s jump right in with this week’s picks.
Player of the Week
Allen Crabbe, Soph, California – In two games this week, Crabbe has established himself as the Golden Bears’ go-to scorer, something we already suspected after his play during the conference season last year. After opening the season with 24 points, including four three-pointers in 30 minutes in a win over UC Irvine, Crabbe upped his efficiency by going for 21 points and five threes while knocking down eight of his 14 field goal attempts in a Sunday night blowout of George Washington. Crabbe posted a 68.1% true shooting percentage this week, knocking down nine of his 17 three-point attempts. While he has yet to fill up other areas of the stat sheet (he didn’t get to the line once in either game, and only posted seven rebounds, two assists and one steal combined between the two), Crabbe has added some solid man defense and figures to be a constant contender for these honors throughout the season.
Allen Crabbe Has Got His Jumper Going Early For The Golden Bears
Newcomer of the Week
Dewayne Dedmon, Soph, USC – While the Trojans needed every minute Friday night to edge Cal State Northridge, Dedmon got his college basketball career off to a flying start. Starting just his fourth year of organized basketball, the rumors of Dedmon’s raw skills have been making the rounds for more than a year now. But the 22-year old junior college transfer from Antelope Valley College got a chance to show off his stuff for real this week. Just a couple minutes into his first collegiate game, he took a no-look pass from point guard Maurice Jones and jammed home the first of his three dunks on the night, winding up with 16 points, eight rebounds, and three blocked shots, all while missing just one shot on the night. While Dedmon still has a long way to go and USC has plenty they still have to work on, it was a great opening night for a great story.
Team of the Week
Arizona – The Wildcats take this honor almost by default. They’re the only Pac-12 team to play three games so far, and they’ve won all three. But beyond that, they’ve actually shown significant improvement since their exhibition loss to Seattle Pacific a few weeks ago. First, head coach Sean Miller has tightened up his rotation some, still playing ten players a night but giving the majority of the minutes to a solid core of seven or eight. And with Kevin Parrom having returned to the lineup against Ball State, just seven weeks after being shot in the leg and the hand, Miller now has his full complement of players. Jordin Mayes has stepped up to claim the starting point guard spot (for the time being at least), while Kyle Fogg, Jesse Perry, Nick Johnson and Solomon Hill have each shown their ability to be scoring threats for the team. While there is still plenty of work that needs to be done in the desert (getting Josiah Turner to buy in and play under control, for one), the Wildcats are well on their way to being a big-time threat come conference play.
Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.
