Pac-12 Weekly Honors: Week Five
Posted by AMurawa on December 12th, 2011This week’s honors head north, with the state of Washington sweeping the awards despite the fact that the Evergreen State’s teams had widely divergent weeks. While the Huskies came up short against some top-shelf competition in New York City, the Cougars continued their road back from near-ruin at the 76 Classic by taking care of some quality mid-majors.
Washington State Has Won Four In A Row Following Their Last Place Finish At The 76 Classic
Team of the Week
Washington State – Since the Cougars’ lost weekend in Anaheim, this team has regained focus and turned a corner. They have now won four straight, including three wins at Beasley Coliseum by an average of 32 points, and are rolling. This week they took to the road on Wednesday and beat a solid Idaho team (just ask Oregon State) when junior point guard Reggie Moore hit a jumper with under a second left to give the Cougars the win. Then they came back and just killed a good Santa Clara team by 38 points behind a career-high 27 points from Brock Motum. Senior forward Charlie Enquist continued his astonishing emergence, posting 18 and 10 in that win. Head coach Ken Bone will still need Moore to play a lot more like he did as a freshman than as he has so far this season (his turnover numbers are way up while his free throw rate is way down), especially when the level of competition goes back up. But after the last couple of weeks, that late-game collapse against UC Riverside in the 76 Classic is becoming increasingly befuddling.
Player of the Week
Brock Motum, Jr, Washington State – Motum has been a rock-steady force for the Cougars throughout this season. He’s one of just two Pac-12 players to score in double figures in each of his team’s games (Terrence Ross of Washington being the other) and he is second on WSU in scoring (14.3 PPG) while leading the team in rebounding (6.8 PPG). Against Santa Clara, Motum used his size and smarts to rack up fouls on the Broncos frontline, getting to the line 11 times. He made nine of his 13 field goal attempts (knocking down one three) and even handed out four assists from out of the post. While the team’s leading scorer, Faisal Aden, deals with the aftermath of a concussion, and with point guard Reggie Moore still struggling to regain his earlier form, it is Motum, along with frontcourt-mate Charlie Enquist, who are making this Cougar team go.
Newcomer of the Week
Tony Wroten, Fr, Washington – It’s never been any secret that Wroten was an insanely talented guard, but like most freshmen, it took him a little while to get comfortable at the college level. This week, we saw Wroten comfortable. Against high-caliber opponents on a national stage, Wroten averaged 18 points per game, 5.5 rebounds per game and shot a 64.3 eFG% in just 23 minutes per game. He has now scored in double figures in all but one Husky game and seems to get better by the day. He still needs to do a better job of getting his teammates involved more consistently (although he leads his team in assist rate), and his turnover rate is far too high, but he’s capable of getting to the line almost at will (although actually making those free throws is another concern) and could be on his way to becoming the Huskies best offensive player – quite a statement to make about a guy who is teammates with C.J. Wilcox and Terrence Ross.
Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.
