The Pac-12 Men's Basketball Awards Are All UCLA
The Pac-12 Men's Basketball Awards Are All UCLA
Jaime Jaquez gets Player of the Year, Mick Cronin gets Coach of the Year among others.
Tuesday was announcement day for the Pac-12 men’s basketball regular season awards, and it very quickly became a celebration for UCLA fans. The Bruins had an impressive haul, with every member of the starting lineup getting honored in some way.
The conference quickly made official what many had believed for a few weeks now, as Jaime Jaquez was announced as the Pac-12 Player of the Year. Jaquez becomes the first Bruin to win the award since Kevin Love did so in 2008, and the first UCLA senior to win the award since Ed O’Bannon in 1995 (that’s probably a good sign, right?). It’s a bit stunning that UCLA had a drought of that length considering some of the talents that have come through the program since then, but it’s hard to say this award was not well-deserved. Jaquez had a wildly-efficient year for the Bruins, not just making an impact on offense but also being an excellent defender, which is what separated him from Arizona’s Azoulas Tubelis for the award.
Jaime also was picked to be part of the Pac-12’s 1st Team All-Conference squad, which runs 10 players deep for some reason. Joining him on the first team is Tyger Campbell, who is making his third straight 1st Team All-Conference selection. Campbell’s inclusion makes sense when you consider the lack of top-end talent at the point guard position in the conference (the only other player of note, Southern Cal’s Boogie Ellis, also made 1st team) but is a little puzzling if only because Campbell has not nearly been as good as he has in past years, so this feels as much like a career achievement nod. Also puzzling is the snub of Jaylen Clark, who received 2nd team honors instead.
All is not lost for Clark, however, as he was named as the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year as a consolation. This one felt wrapped up back in the first few weeks of the season, but Clark also never let up throughout, and even during some rough offensive stretches, his tenacious defense continued to make him a positive player. Clark was also named to the conference’s All-Defense team alongside teammate Adem Bona.
As an aside for those keeping track at home, Mick Cronin announced today that Jaylen Clark has a lower leg injury that will keep him out for the tournament this week and he will be further evaluated earlier. This lines up with what I said yesterday, especially when Cronin mentioned that’s all he’s authorized to say and that the NCAA can reach out if they have more questions. It’s all a bit of gamesmanship and trying to protect UCLA’s seeding from Cronin, and we likely won’t get anything official from the school until next week.
Adem Bona did not stop with his All-Defense selection, as he was also named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. I would like to say that I called all of this back during my season preview, but that would be lying. I felt Bona would have an impact on defense fairly quickly, but I did not expect it to be this profound, nor to see his development on the offensive end. I do think he was helped a bit in the voting by being on the best team in the conference, as Oregon State’s Jordan Pope certainly deserves recognition, but you can’t deny the impact he’s had on the court.
I noted that every member of the starting lineup was honored, and that included Amari Bailey, who joined Bona on the All-Freshman team. It’s not a surprising selection for Bailey considering he averaged almost double figures in points and won Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on multiple occasions, though I guess it is nice to see that he was not punished harshly for missing a few weeks in the middle of the season due to injury.
One notable omission from the UCLA rotation is David Singleton, who was not named for any award. You might have guessed he was in the running for Sixth Man of the Year, but Singleton was actually ineligible for the award. The Pac-12 states that in order to be eligible for the award, you may only have started one-third or less of your team’s conference games, and Singleton was a starter for nine of UCLA’s 20 conference games. Ironically, giving him the start on senior night put him well past the eligibility requirements, but I’m sure David did not mind considering the outcome of that game and the season in general.
Finally, Coach Mick Cronin was honored as the Pac-12 Coach of the Year for the second time in his UCLA tenure. In many ways, it feels like Cronin won this award by default as the coach of the best team in the conference because no other coach really stood out as having overachieved. Arizona and Southern Cal placed about where you would expect, Oregon underachieved, and Stanford finished in 10th place after getting a 1st place vote in the preseason poll, a fact that I will never stop laughing at. The only case you could maybe make is for Arizona State and Bobby Hurley, but that team was too inconsistent and sits outside the bubble for the NCAA Tournament at the moment.
Still, we should not discount what Cronin has done this year with the Bruins. This is the second year in a row that the Bruins entered the season as the preseason favorites, but this year they more than lived up to those expectations, finishing the season a full four games clear of second place and going undefeated at home, running up a nation-leading home winning streak of 25 games in the process.
Not a bad day by any stretch of the imagination for the Bruins.
Go Bruins!
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It is all in the family, the bruin family !
Congratulations to our young men for their recognition. Go Bruins! Heal well, Jaylen!