Zona Zealots Chooses Pac-12 POW: Lauri Markkanen

The Pac-12 has named a Player of the Week since the beginning of conference play, and not one Arizona Basketball player has gotten the votes, they have been nominated.

Arizona Basketball fans have been surprised and dismayed this season as the first place Wildcats have been consistently overlooked for the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week honors. Therefore, we thought we’d have a little fun and help make a case for Lauri Markkanen in case the Pac-12 is too busy to do a little research.

Both former coach Lute Olson and current coach Sean Miller emphasize teamwork, and we assume the coaches would rather have a win than weekly conference honors. As fans, we feel the same. But if the conference is going to hand out Player of the Week honors, let’s be honest about who should receive them.

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For example, since November 14th, a UCLA Bruin has been honored four times for POW. That makes sense as UCLA is one of the top teams in the nation and the Pac-12. However, UCLA hasn’t been in first place in the conference yet this season. The Oregon Ducks and Arizona Wildcats have a share of first place since the conference play started at the end of December. Two Ducks have won POW honors. The grand total of Player of the Week awards for any Arizona Wildcat–ZERO! Don’t forget the Wildcats are 7-0 in the conference, 18-2 overall.

Perhaps the Pac-12 feels none of the Wildcats have had any performance that stood out or single-handedly contributed to any of the 18 victories this season. Let’s look at a few awards that stand out to fans.

On January 9th, the league announced sophomore Ivan Rabb from California was the Player of the Week recipient. The conference noted his average of 17 points and 14 rebounds in the weekend split on the road at UCLA and USC.

Last week the coach’s son, Bryce Alford, won the Player of the Week award for UCLA. He has earned this honor twice this month. Alford is a great shooter and a clutch player for the second place Bruins. No doubt he deserves it, he averaged 26 points and 57 percent shooting in a rare road sweep at Colorado and Utah. At the time of writing this post, Colorado had yet to win a conference game.

On January 12th, Arizona State and Arizona hooked up for their rivalry game, the only game either school would play that week. The Wildcats came out roaring. Adding salt to the wound, Arizona freshman Lauri Markkanen decided to do a little Bryce Alford imitation. Remind you; he is a seven-foot and 230-pound forward who makes three’s.

What was amazing about Markkanen’s offensive output was his stream of three-pointers he hit. At one point Markkanen hit three straight outside the arc, and he finished 12-18 and 4-7 from three-point range.

Maybe because Arizona only had one game that week the conference felt Markkanen’s numbers weren’t worthy of Player of the Week. Perhaps 30 points didn’t make enough of a difference in the win over arch-rival Arizona State. It could be three 3-pointers in a row weren’t quite the dagger needed to keep Bobby Hurley quiet.

For these reasons, Zona Zealots feels this is the weekend Lauri Markkanen should be awarded POW honors. After all, Arizona completed a rare sweep on the road against the Southern California schools. The sweep against Colorado and Utah helped propel Alford to the award, so why not Markkanen? USC and UCLA have both been ranked this year, not so for Alford’s foes.

Well, CBS seemed more enamored with freshman TJ Leaf before and during the game.  They showed a graphic of sensational NCAA basketball freshmen this season. Leaf was the token West Coast newcomer noted. Markkanen wasn’t pictured. That’s okay because Wildcats let their play do the talking and now in one week have moved up seven spots to rank No. 7 in the Nation.

While the Arizona Wildcats have several players who deserve Player of the Week honors for January 23rd, Lauri Markkanen’s body of work over ASU, USC, and UCLA deserve recognition.

Against USC Thursday, Markkanen scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Five of those baskets were three-pointers. Against UCLA, he scored 18 to go with his seven rebounds.

Next: Arizona Basketball Sweeps USC and UCLA on the Road

Here’s a reminder for the Pac-12, Arizona is now undefeated and in first place in the conference. Sleep in a little Monday, we did the work for you. Until next week, BearDown and bring home the honors Arizona Basketball.