Arizona Basketball – Pac-12 Honors Announced by Commissioner Larry Scott

Mar 5, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats forward Stanley Johnson (5), center Kaleb Tarczewski (35), forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (23) and guard T.J. McConnell (4) cheer from the bench during the second half against the California Golden Bears at McKale Center. Arizona won 99-60. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

The Pac-12’s Commissioner Larry Scott announced the coaches Pac-12 honors today for the 2014-2015 season, and no T.J. did not win “Player of the Year” but he and others were honored, here’s how.

THE VOTE (per www.pac-12.com): Coach of the Year, All-Conference, All-Freshman, All-Defensive teams and Most Improved Player are voted on by the coaches. Coaches are not permitted to vote for themselves or their own players for the honors.

Pac-12 Player of the Year honors did not go to our beloved T.J. McConnell who is worth a lot to our school, our fans, and our team and coaches, it went to OREGON senior guard Joseph Young.  Bummed out at that news, Bill Walton picked T.J. even!

Young averaged 36.4 minutes per game, made 44% of his field goals, 35% of his three-pointers, 92% of his free throws, made 141 rebounds, 116 Assists, 135 steals and scored 614 total points averaging 19.8 points per game.  This was compared by all the Pac-12 coaches to McConnell’s record: averaged 29.6 minutes per game, made 49.4% of his field goals, 32% of his three-pointers (less), 76% of his free throws, made 117 rebounds, 195 Assists, 65 steals and scored 298 total points averaging 9.6 points per game.

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What’s not taken into consideration in the stats is that T.J. makes things happen, Arizona is not a one man team.  When the score starts to slip, T.J. comes back in and he makes the difference, over and over again.

Another facet of T.J.’s game is how he navigates each team, the reason he has been named the “Floor General” or “Floor Captain.”  He organizes the team on the court, calms down players, and helps them keep their head in the game. Granted I didn’t watch a whole lot of Oregon basketball this season, but there is something intangible about T.J. that makes him our Player of the Year. I mean he literally kissed the “Lute and Bobbi Olsen Court” goodbye on Arizona’s big “A” Logo..who does that?

Next: Who is the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year?

Jan 17, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats forward Stanley Johnson (5) shoots the ball as he is defended by Utah Utes forward Kyle Kuzma (35) and center Dallin Bachynski (31) during the second half at McKale Center. Arizona won 69-51. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

The Freshman of the year honors went to our own Stanley Johnson.

Stanley Johnson had the highest points per game of the entire Arizona team scoring an average of 13.9 points.  He made 35% of his free throws, averaged 6.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.5 steals and scored a total of 431 points.  STANDING “O” forStanley who is now projected to go fifth in the NBA draft by broadcasters.  This may change after the tournaments, but pretty high for him not to throw his name into the hat, don’t you think? We would love to keep him, but how do you even start to make an argument?

Johnson was also named to the list of five of the best  Pac-12 freshman of the year, the All Freshman Team.

Next: Which Wildcats made Pac-12 all team?

Mar 7, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; From left Arizona Wildcats forward Stanley Johnson (5) , guard T.J. McConnell (4) , forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (23) , forward Brandon Ashley (21) and guard Elliott Pitts (24) walk off of the court after beating the Stanford Cardinal at McKale Center. Arizona won 69-91. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Which Wildcats made Pac-12 all team? Rondae, T.J. and Stanley!

Guard T.J. McConnell, forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and forward Stanley Johnson made the Pac-12 All Team (or first team) roster.  Arizona makes up 30% of the all-team for the Pac-12 and the only two forwards on the team are Wildcats. Well of course, impressive!

The rest of the team honors went to guard DaVonté Lacy from Washington State, guard Gary Payton II, son of NBA star Gary Payton from Oregon State, guard Norman Powell from UCLA, guard Chasson Randle from Stanford, guard Tyrone Wallace from Cal, guard Delon Wright from Utah, and guard Joseph Young from Oregon.  So eight guards, and two forwards, no centers.  Kind of wish Zues had made the list..couldn’t put one center on the list?

The Pac-12 Second team, a list of five players, included no Arizona players although Brandon Ashley received an honorable mention with three votes.

Next: Next up the Pac-12 All Defensive team...

Mar 5, 2015; Tucson, AZ, USA; Arizona Wildcats forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (23) and guard T.J. McConnell (4) celebrates during the second half against the California Golden Bears at McKale Center. Arizona won 99-60. Mandatory Credit: Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

Two Arizona Wildcats made the list of five for the Pac-12 All Defensive Team: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and T.J. McConnell!

Coach Sean Miller wasn’t kidding when he says his team is all about defense, two-fifths of the Pac-12 all defensive team are Wildcats!

Rondae, and the rest of us, were dissapointed that he did not win the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award, here is what he had to say:

Next: All the rest...

Oct 17, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; Players and coaches pose at media day at Pac-12 Network Studios. From left: J.T. Terrell and Andy Enfield (Southern California), Mike Montgomery (California), Johnathan Loyd and Dana Altman (Oregon), Roberto Nelson and Craig Robinson (Oregon State), C.J. Wilcox and Lorenzo Romar (Washington), Kyle Anderson and Steve Alford (UCLA), Dwight Powell and Johnny Dawkins (Stanford), Jordan Loveridge and Larry Krystkowiak (Utah), Spencer Dinwiddle and Tad Boyle (Colorado), DaVonte Lacy and Ken Bone (Washington State), Nick Johnson and Sean Miller (Arizona) and Jahil Carson and Herb Sendek (Arizona State). Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Other items to mention:

Pac-12 John R. Wooden Coach of the year honor – Oregon Coach Dana Altman This honor did not go to our 28-3 overall and 16-2 conference winning Coach Sean Miller, no, it went to Oregon Coach Dana Altman.  Probably because Oregon lost two key players last year which was unforeseen, and took the new team past Utah to end up the second seed in the Pac-12 tournament.  Still think Coach Miller deserved it.

Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year – Oregon State junior guard Gary Payton II   And there you have it, all in all, seven honors, and one honorable mention were given to Arizona who had arguably the most fantastic season.  They Coach Miller is on a roll with 38 consecutive wins!  

We asked Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) who operates AllSportsTucson.com to give us his perspective on the awards Arizona wasn’t awarded:

On Player of the Year Honor:

“The most surprising part of today’s Pac-12 honors is Joseph Young earning the player of the year selection over T.J. McConnell or Delon Wright. Young for the most part was not part of the discussion for the potential player of the year when I polled some of the national media during the season. It was mostly Wright, McConnell or Stanford’s Chasson Randle.”

Mar 15, 2014; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Arizona Wildcats head coach Sean Miller instructs in a huddle against the UCLA Bruins during the second half in the championship game of the Pac-12 Conference college basketball tournament at MGM Grand Garden Arena. The Bruins defeated the Wildcats 75-71. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

“Young’s scoring and shooting ability are impressive but my thought is the most important player of the best team should trump everybody. McConnell was as deserving of the player of the year honor as anybody who has won the honor for Arizona because of his impressive assist-to-turnover ratio and ability to be the glue for Arizona in pressure situations.”

On Defensive Player of the Year Honor:

“Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is the best defensive player in the conference. Coaches were enamored with Gary Payton II”s ability to steal the ball. Hollis-Jefferson did more than steals. He denied the ball from the top offensive player of the other team. He has also defended four positions.”

On Coach of the Year:

“The coach of the year was also a shame. Although Altman did a great job of keeping the program on solid ground, he was part of the problem that could have wrecked his operation. He recruited the players who were involved in the alleged rape case.

“You have to wonder about Altman’s discipline and character development and assessment. Sean Miller’s team won the conference title by three games after losing the player of the year and freshman of the year from last year. That’s a very difficult task inasmuch as he needed to build chemistry with an influx of new talent and roles along with that.”

Arizona Alumni Kevin Parrom had this to say:

And we will end on a nice note from T.J. McConnell to all of you…