Another week, another group of Pac-12 honors…
Team of the Week – California
For the first time since way back in November, the Golden Bears earn our Team of the Week honors. Back then, they were coming off winning the DirecTV Classic in an anything but awe-inspiring manner. This time around, however, there is good reason to believe that there are really good things in Cal’s future. And that is partly because there have been really good things in Cal’s recent past. They are the hottest team in the conference, having won five straight games and seven of their last eight.
Upperclassmen Allen Crabbe and Justin Cobbs are beginning to shake off their inconsistency and regularly make winning plays for their team. Up front, Richard Solomon and David Kravish are each playing their best basketball of their respective careers. And best yet, this seems to be a group that is really starting to become a team. Throughout the first couple months of the season, there was regularly terrible body language from this bunch; there was chippiness and an overall lack of cohesion. Nowadays, it looks like everybody has everybody else’s back.
Player of the Week – Justin Cobbs, California
Back when the Golden Bears won that Anaheim tournament, Cobbs won the Player of the Week award then as well. And perhaps it is no coincidence that when the team is playing its best basketball, their point guard is also playing his best basketball. Cobbs’ numbers weren’t stellar this week, although he did average 16 points, six assists and 4.5 rebounds per night in his two games. And there is that pesky little matter of 10 turnovers over the course of the week, including eight in the Thursday night game. But those eight sins on Thursday night were largely absolved in the final moments when the 6’3” guard took advantage of the 5’7” Jonathan Loyd and drilled a game-winning 18-foot jumper with under a second to play to give the Bears the big win. And then on Saturday night against Oregon State, Cobbs was again big late in the game, scoring Cal’s last five points as they held on to their spot just a game back of the conference leaders.
Newcomer of the Week – Arsalan Kazemi, Oregon
I could hardly believe it when I went back and looked at it, but we had yet to give the Oregon senior this award at any point this season. In a week where the choice between Kazemi and UCLA’s Jordan Adams was a toss-up, we decided to go with the veteran. Kazemi has been an excellent glue guy for the Ducks all season, perfectly content to defend like mad, run the floor in search of easy hoops and eat up any rebounds coming off the glass on either end of the floor; he’s happy to leave most of the half-court looks for his teammates. Still, Kazemi’s production does not suffer. This week he averaged 13 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 4.5 steals per game and for the season he has seven double-doubles and nine games with at least three steals.