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Arizona Basketball: Anderson awarded Pac-12 and USBWA Player Of the Week honors

By Shereen Rayan

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Ryan Anderson has been playing consistent, near perfect basketball lately. Finally, the Pac-12 coaches and the USBWA writers agreed that he is last weeks Player of the Week.

United States Basketball Writers Association Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week award went to Arizona Basketball forward, Ryan Anderson. The award is voted on by representatives of the USBWA board of directors from a list of Division I players. For the first time in seven years, the USBWA awarded three players consecutively from one conference: Ryan Anderson, Dillon Brooks, Oregon and Jakob Poeltl, Utah.

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Anderson earned the first 30-point, 10-rebound performance by a Wildcat since March 2011 with 31 points and 12 boards in Wednesday’s 79-64 win over Washington State.

This last week Anderson averaged 26.5 points making 16-of-28 shots (57 percent), 13.5 rebounds and made 21 out of 28 foul shots (75 percent). He is only one of two Pac-12 players who are averaging a double-double, he ranks second in the league in rebounding (10.4) and eighth in scoring (16.2).

Also this week, the Pac-12 announced that their coaches finally voted an Arizona player as the Player of the Week. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any better, Anderson was named as a finalist for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year. He has already been named a finalist for the Oscar Robertson award.

After beating both Washington and Washington State this past week, Anderson and his Wildcats are now one of three teams in the Pac-12, who have swept their opponents in-conference on a road trip in 28 attempts. The other two were Oregon beating both Arizona and Arizona state and Utah also beating Washington and Washington state.

In today’s Pac-12 coaches conference call, Sean Miller was asked if anything has changed over the last stretch with regards to Ryan Anderson, “Not really..as far back as the month of October I was talking about how Ryan is our team’s most consistent and best player of what he was doing in practice,” he said, “[Anderson] is the most consistent player that we’ve had at Arizona other than Derrick Williams in his sophomore year.”

“Ryan as our teams most consistent and best player.” – Sean Miller

He continued, “I think he’s taken it up a level here recently. One of the things Ryan has a huge advantage of is his strength and conditioning, he’s one of the strongest people that ever played at Arizona. I think he’s in the best shape of his life.”

A lot of players wear down during the season; Miller believes Anderson is moving in the opposite direction because of his health and his conditioning. Couldn’t have happened at a better time as the Cats (19-5) moved back up five spots on the AP Top 25 ranking to No. 17. USC took over the No. 23 spot from Arizona and Oregon sits at No. 11, just one game above Arizona at 20-4.

If Ryan can continue playing solid basketball and the Cats remain healthy this week, there is a good chance they can beat both USC and UCLA and rise the charts even higher. The Wildcats look like they have their mojo back which is important because this week is a gut-check week for the Wildcats as they seek revenge on the So Cal teams.

All this attention has not been lost on our studly senior; he tweeted out some thoughtful words today.

BearDown Ryan! Keep up the fantastic play and diligent conditioning, ZonaZealots followers and Wildcats fans have your back!

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