It was a wild weekend around the Pac-12, with some bad, some good, and plenty of interesting. We’ll deal with all the bad as time permits, but let’s start the week off on a positive note, handing out our second round of weekly honors.
Team of the Week – California
The Golden Bears got off to a slow start in Anaheim, needing a late run to survive an opening round scare from Drake at the DirecTV Classic, but once that wakeup call was received, they looked pretty good in getting past Georgia Tech and Pacific to take home the crown. Justin Cobbs and Allen Crabbe led the way, with each earning all-tournament honors, but head coach Mike Montgomery got contributions from all of the guys in his normal seven-man rotation, including a promising 12-PPG and 7.3 RPG average from the weekend out of mercurial junior big man Richard Solomon.
Justin Cobbs Led His Cal Team To The DirecTV Classic Title, Earning Himself RTC Pac-12 POTW Honors As Well (credit: Tony Avelar)
Player of the Week – Justin Cobbs, California
It was his teammate, Crabbe, who won our inaugural POTW last week, but Cobbs is the no-brainer this weekend. He averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game, a pair of steals on 16-28 field goal shooting, and he did it all while playing under control, recognizing his role with the team, and getting as many good looks for his teammates as he did for himself. While plenty of backcourts around the conference have earned accolades in the lead-up to the season, at this point the Cobbs/Crabbe combo at Cal is clearly the pre-eminent guard duo in the league.
Newcomer of the Week – Jahii Carson, Arizona State
After watching Carson go for 30 points, seven assists and four boards in a very efficient manner in a losing effort against Creighton on Saturday night, one of the thoughts that passed through my mind was the following question: “Is Carson already the best point guard in the Pac-12?” It’s a worthwhile topic to discuss at some later date, but the fact that I’m asking that question and putting the freshman up there with veterans like Mark Lyons, Justin Cobbs, Abdul Gaddy and the like shows just how good he has been in his first five games at ASU. This week he averaged 23.3 points, 4.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game while shooting a 50% eFG and a 60.5% true shooting percentage. Oh, and he averaged better than 35 minutes per game. Yeah. He’s good.