I was poking around some of the upcoming posts on Rush the Court last night, not entirely sure what I wanted to write about, when I stumbled across Brendan Brody’s piece over on the Big Ten microsite about picking a pair of All-Star Game rosters out of that conference. Well, that seemed like a perfectly brilliant idea to me, so I figured I’d steal borrow that notion and shift out west to the Conference of Champions. He’s got 12-man rosters in a 14 (or 16 or 18? God knows how many teams are in the Big-Can’t Count) team league, and we’ve only got 12, so I’m just going to fill out two 10-man rosters and split them based on the North/South divisions that the conference uses for football. One other caveat: We’re going to steal an idea from the MLB (probably the first time I’ve ever used that phrase) and require at least one player from each team. And, since we’re going to have an All-Star Game, we might as well make a full weekend out of it and host a dunk contest, a three-point contest and a skills competition, right? Let’s jump right in.

Seriously. How Cool Would An In-Season Conference All-Star Game Be?

Pac-12 North All-Stars

Starters

• G: Chasson Randle, Sr, Stanford
• G: Joseph Young, Sr, Oregon
• G: Gary Payton II, Jr, Oregon State
• F: Anthony Brown, Sr, Stanford
• F: Josh Hawkinson, So, Washington State

Bench

• G: Davonte Lacy, Sr, Washington State
• G: Nigel Williams-Goss, So, Washington
• G: Tyrone Wallace, Jr, California
• F: Jordan Bell, Fr, Oregon
• C: Stefan Nastic, Sr, Stanford

Really, the whole reason I wanted to write this post is so I could further imagine a backcourt that features Randle, Young and Payton. If this ASG devolves to one-on-one matchups with little or no defense like the NBA ASG does, I want to see those three on the court with Wallace and Bell at the same time for all the dunks, threes, oohs and aahs galore. And while the thought of Hawkinson in an all-star game format doesn’t exactly make me swoon, I for one have no problem regarding him as the best big man among these northern schools, at least by a hair over Bell and Nastic. Leaving Jordan Mathews off of this team pains me, and he’s probably the biggest snub up north, but Shawn Kemp, Dwayne Benjamin and Dillon Brooks all could have beef with being left at home too.

Pac-12 South All-Stars

Starters

• G: Delon Wright, Sr, Utah
• G: T.J. McConnell, Sr, Arizona
• F: Stanley Johnson, Fr, Arizona
• F: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, So, Arizona
• F: Kevon Looney, Fr, UCLA

That’s Three – Count ‘Em Three – Arizona Starters

Bench

• F: Shaquielle McKissic, Sr, Arizona State
• C: Jakob Poeltl, Fr, Utah
• G: Askia Booker, Sr, Colorado
• G: Norman Powell, Sr, UCLA
• F: Nikola Jankovic, So, USC

That North backcourt looks like an awful lot of fun in an ASG format, but if Sean Miller is the head coach of this team and, per usual, gets his team to buy in on the defensive end, this starting five is chock-full of lock-down defenders with guys like McKissic, Poeltl and Powell off the bench. And even if the game does devolve into playground action, there is no shortage of high-flying elite athletes on this team either. As much as I love the North’s backcourt, the South has four guys who will be first-round NBA Draft picks in June, with another guy in Poeltl coming off the pine in the mix there as well. Up north, there are a lot more question marks as to any of those players’ professional futures. With all the talent available down south, there are quite a few snubs here as well, especially with Jankovic sneaking in to steal a coveted spot. Brandon Ashley, Brandon Taylor and Eric Jacobsen could all be in the conversation, with the most painful snub coming with Josh Scott. Man, remember back in late 2014 when he looked like a sure-fire first-team all-conference guy? Let’s hope the big fella can stay healthy for a while now.

Skills Competition

The Skills Competition, with guards weaving between cones, firing off passes and going coast-to-coast for the finish, has turned into a fun All-Star weekend event, one we could maybe spice up in the Pac with a couple additional tasks. In a conference with so many fun lead guards, this seems like a no-brainer for entertainment purposes. Here’s our lineup:

• Delon Wright
• Chasson Randle
• Joseph Young
• T.J. McConnell
• Nigel Williams-Goss
• Bryce Alford

Dunk Contest

The NBA dunk contest has fallen out of favor, with most elite players deciding they are too cool for such an event. Seriously, how the hell can NBA stars like LeBron James and Russell Westbrook get through their careers without multiple appearances in that event? Anyway, we don’t expect to have that problem in the Pac ASG. Check out this roster of dunkers:

• Stanley Johnson
• Norman Powell
• Shaquielle McKissic
• Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
• Jordan Bell
• Tyrone Wallace

Three-Point Competition

Much like the NBA, where the Three-Point Competition has taken over the spotlight of All-Star Saturday night, this event figures to be well worth watching given all the elite shooters in this conference. Try to pick a winner out of this bunch:

• Joseph Young
• Chasson Randle
• DaVonte Lacy
• Anthony Brown
• Jonathan Gilling
• Bo Barnes
• Brandon Taylor
• Katin Reinhardt

AMurawa (999 Posts)

Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2015 at 3:11 pm by Andrew Murawa and is filed under microsites, pac 12. Tagged: all-stars, anthony brown, chasson randle, delon wright, feature, gary payton ii, joseph young, josh hawkinson, kevon looney, pac-12, rondae hollis-jefferson, Stanley Johnson, tj mcconnell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.