Pac-12 Weekly Honors: Week Three
Posted by Andrew Murawa on December 9th, 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: Utah
Utah’s Win Wednesday Night Over Wichita State Was A Rare Recent Success, But Bodes Well For the Future (Rick Bowmer, AP)
In a week when there were several strong candidates around the conference thanks to big wins against nationally-regarded programs (hey to Arizona and Washington), the Utes get the nod in part because of the rarity of such wins recently around the program and in part due to the manner in which they won the game. First, as to the rarity, in their three previous seasons in the Pac-12, Utah has exactly one win per year over teams that finished the season ranked in the KenPom top 40, with the best win coming against UCLA last season. But for this program, the win over Wichita State (currently ranked #7 by KenPom) looks to be just the first of several quality victories this year rather than an isolated incident. As to the second point, the manner in which the Utes won, let’s put it this way: It was thrilling. Not only does this program not have a recent history of winning against quality programs, but they also have dealt with the back-monkey of dropping close games in heartbreaking fashion. Toward the end of Wednesday night’s win, it looked for a few moments like the Utes were going to reprise that same old song. Instead, they recovered to nail down their big win and earn some much-needed confidence.
(Also receiving votes: Washington)
Player of the Week: Tyrone Wallace, California
With the Golden Bears playing a couple of games this week without Jabari Bird, they really needed somebody to step up and replace his scoring. In a sluggish double-overtime win at home against Montana, Wallace was great in scoring 22 points, pulling down 14 boards and handing out five assists. But the reason his name appears here today is because of his performance in the second half of the Bears’ game at Nevada on Saturday afternoon. With Cal struggling, Wallace took over, scoring 26 of his 29 points after the break on a series of increasingly improbable shots. The Wolf Pack threw all sorts of defenders at him and he responded with fall-away 17-footers, twisting double-clutch jumpers in the lane, and even makes on two of his three three-point attempts. To top things off, as the guy charged with being the point guard on this team, he helped get his teammates involved as well, drawing defenders and leaving them with dimes for easy attempts. Without Wallace’s heroics (25.5 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 4.5 APG, 60.6% eFG for the week), odds are good that the Bears would have dropped both of their games.
(Also receiving votes: Gary Payton II, Oregon State; Dakari Tucker, Utah)
Newcomer of the Week: Jordan McLaughlin, USC
He – and his team – had plenty of bumps in the early going, but the Trojans’ star freshman point guard is coming along very nicely a month into the season. In two games this week, he averaged 19.5 PPG, 6.0 APG and 3.0 RPG while shooting a 59.6% eFG and showing serious defensive growth. The Trojans still have a long way to go as a team, but McLaughlin is starting to show what all the hype was about.
(Also receiving votes: Jakob Poeltl, Utah; Gary Payton II, Oregon State)
Power Rankings
Arizona remains the choice for the top team in the conference and still hasn’t been picked by anybody for lower than first. For the second week in a row, Utah is the unanimous choice as the league’s #2 team. From there, things get quite muddy. Washington jumps to the third spot this week following its convincing win over San Diego State, while Colorado dips again, now down to #8 in our poll following a loss at Georgia.
Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.
