Arizona basketball: Anderson on All-Pac-12 first team

Who were the best 10 players in the Pac-12 this season, a group that eventually was deemed to include the UA’s Ryan Anderson? The next five best? The top coach? Top player?

Tough calls, all.

“When you have such a terrific conference like we’ve had this year, these postseason awards are even more meaningful than they usually are,” Miller said. “I took my time for a couple of days and waited until the end because you don’t want to overlook these kids who have given their heart and soul.”

While coaches can’t vote for their own players, four Arizona players were recognized by the league’s other coaches: Anderson made the 10-player first team, guard Gabe York and center Kaleb Tarczewski made the five-player second team, guard Allonzo Trier made all-freshman and Tarczewski was also named to the all-defensive team.

Miller said the fact that he couldn’t vote for his guys actually made his job easier, but he still found difficult to lay it all out in a league that was as competitive and deep as the Pac-12 was this season.

So deep, in fact, that two players Miller spoke of as ones who should get recognized — ASU’s Tra Holder and Washington State’s Josh Hawkinson — didn’t even get honorable mention all-Pac-12.

“You can go through every program in the Pac-12 and one player really stands out as, ‘Well, certainly he’s on the all-conference team. Tra Holder would be an example. Josh Hawkinson at Washington State, if you look at his rebounding and scoring, and how consistent he’s been. …

“Then you go to the teams that have a first-round bye (in the conference tournament) and there should be multiple players on those teams.”

Well, almost. While UA had three players among the 15 players named to the first or second teams, Oregon had only Dillon Brooks and Elgin Cook named to the first team, but nobody on the second team, while second-place Utah had just Jakob Poeltl on the first team and nobody on the second.

Cal, which tied for third place with Arizona, had Jaylen Brown on the first team and fellow freshman Ivan Rabb on the second team.

Later Monday, Oregon’s Dana Altman was named the Pac-12’s coach of the year, with Utah’s Poeltl named player of the year and Oregon State’s Gary Payton II the top defender. In addition, Colorado’s George King was named most improved, and Utah’s Brandon Taylor was the league’s scholar-athlete of the year.

Miller said he “went with the champion” in voting for Altman over Utah’s Larry Krystkowiak on his coach-of-the-year choice (coaches pick two, but rank them), but declined to say whether he voted for Brooks or Poeltl for player of the year.

No UA players were made available for comment at Monday’s news conference.

York named Player of the Week

Arizona guard Gabe York beat out some pretty stiff competition for the Pac-12’s Player of the Week award after his three-point barrage against Cal and Stanford.

York had three 3s in the final 2:39 of Arizona’s 64-61 win over Cal last Thursday, then tied a school-record with nine 3s against Stanford two days later. He averaged 25.5 points a game while making 12 of 20 three-pointers in the two games.

The league’s other top candidates were Washington’s Andrew Andrews, who tied the nation’s biggest scoring output this season with 47 points against WSU, and Oregon’s Tyler Dorsey, who averaged 19.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in the Ducks’ road sweep of UCLA and USC.

“He earned it, especially with the way he played at the end of the game against Cal,” Miller said of York. “He put us on his shoulders, rescued us from the dead. Made timely big shots. You always hope your best players, best perimeter players, best shooters, make plays when it counts, and in Gabe’s case all of those things are true.

“And to follow it up with the complete game that he had against Stanford — one of the great shooting performances I’ve seen — is quite an achievement.”

York became the third UA player to win the award this season, joining Trier (Dec. 14) and Anderson (Feb. 8).

“In this conference, this year with so many talented players and great performances, it says a lot about those guys and our team as well,” Miller said.

Motivation all around

While Miller said the Wildcats can have a mindset to play well this week at the Pac-12 Tournament — especially because they didn’t win the regular-season title and may be facing teams they have not beaten — there are plenty of other potential motivations around the league.

Oregon, for example, could earn a No. 1 NCAA Tournament berth if it wins the conference tournament, while Oregon State may need a win to assure itself of an NCAA Tournament bid, and UCLA will need to win the entire thing to get in this season.

“I don’t see anyone in the country who deserves a two-line (No. 2 seed) more than them,” Miller said of Oregon. “If you look at RPI, how successful they were in the nonconference. … Las Vegas will help them. If they were to win, you’d think they’d have a chance at being one of the top four.”

Miller said he believes UA’s seeding could go up or down a line depending on how it plays, but said the Wildcats “would almost have to win” the tournament to get into the preferred 1-4 seed range, where teams often play closer to home and are assured of not facing an opponent who is closer to home in the first two rounds.

“Where we’re seeded could vary dramatically,” Miller said. “It’s not just about what you do as a team, but there are also some teams who are going to play four games in four nights or three games in four nights and change their outcome tremendously.

“So you don’t want to be the victim of a team playing great if you’re not ready. If anything, we could be one of those teams. I would like to think being champion or playing all the way until Saturday would help your cause tremendously for the tournament. Then, gaining that momentum of playing really good on a neutral court against quality teams could give us an edge on our first (NCAA Tournament) game.”