Pac-12 Weekly Honors: Week Two
Posted by AMurawa on December 1st, 2014Each week the Pac-12 microsite will run down our weekly superlatives, which typically will include a Team, Player and Newcomer of the Week, along with our weekly Power Rankings.
Team of the Week: Arizona. It wasn’t always as easy as you would hope for a team with Final Four aspirations, but winning the Maui Invitational and knocking off emerging West Coast rival San Diego State in the process speaks for itself. In a week where ten losses piled up around the conference, the Wildcats’ show of toughness and obvious upside on a national stage like the Maui Invitational is hard to beat. And if they can knock off fellow top-ten team Gonzaga next Saturday, they may be in for a repeat appearance in this spot next week.
(Also receiving votes: Washington)
Arizona Earns The RTC Pac-12 Team of the Week On The Strength Of Their Maui Invitational Title
Player of the Week: Stanley Johnson, Arizona. We haven’t seen the best of Johnson yet, but he seemingly gets better by the game. Against San Diego State, he had a career-high 18 points, but it took him 14 field goal attempts to get to that point. Luckily he did a lot of other things, like: get to the line ten times in that game and make nine of those attempts; pull down nine boards; grab three steals and play some terrific all-around defense. And so what if he got a little overexcited and had to have his senior point guard tell him to shut up? You want that kind of intensity, right?
(Also receiving votes: Nigel Williams-Goss, Washington; Tyrone Wallace, California)
Newcomer of the Week: Gerry Blakes, Arizona State. Sure, Stanley Johnson is a newcomer. And considering he’s our Player of the Week, he should also be our Newcomer of the Week. But man, Gerry Blakes was so good this week against quality competition, we just had to give him a shoutout. In three games, Blakes averaged 19.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists, all while shooting a 58 eFG%. An athletic, attacking wing who is unafraid to get his own shots up, but is just as capable of getting teammates involved, Blakes looks like a quality find for Herb Sendek and the Sun Devils.
(Also receiving votes: Jakob Poeltl, Utah)
Power Rankings
Arizona remains the unanimous choice as the best team in the league. It will be interesting to see if there comes a time this season when they are voted as anything other than #1 in these power rankings. Utah climbed up from the #5 spot to the runner-up to the Wildcats, but beyond that, from #3 down to #8, there is a lot of confusion, with the final four spots being unanimous as well.
Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.
