Pac-12 trio aiming to punch tickets to Phoenix for Final Four

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#PAC12HOOPS STARTING FIVE

3 - Three Pac-12 teams have advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 (ARIZONA, OREGON, UCLA) for the third time in the past four seasons and fifth time in the past decade. It also marks the ninth time in the 33 years since the field expanded to 64 that at least three Conference teams reached the Sweet 16 - with all nine coming since 1997.

3 - Three consecutive years the Pac-12 has advanced a team to the Elite Eight - the only conference in the country to accomplish the feat (2014 - ARIZONA; 2015 - ARIZONA; 2016 - OREGON).
>> The Pac-12 has also had a Sweet 16 participant in each of the last five seasons.

3x30, 4x25 -  For the first time in the Conference’s 101-season history, three teams have reached at least 30 overall victories.
>> USC set a program record with 26 wins to give the Conference four 25-win teams in a single season for just the second time in its 101-season history (2006-07).

3x3 - Of the Pac-12’s four NCAA Tournament teams, three earned a No. 3 seed or better, marking the fourth time in league history three teams were seeded as high.
>> 1981: #1 OSU, #2 ASU, #3 UCLA; 1992: #1 UCLA (E8), #2 USC, #3 ARIZ; 2007: #2 UCLA (F4), #3 ORE (E8), #3 WSU; 2017: #2 ARIZ, #3 ORE, #3 UCLA.

8-1 -  The Pac-12 owns a national-best 8-1 record (.889) through the first week of NCAA Tournament play, tying for the seventh-most victories by Conference members in one tournament.
>> 13 wins - 1997, 2001; 11 - 1998; 10 - 2007; 9 - 1995, 2002; 8 - 2017, 5 others.

PAC-12 TIPOFF

WELCOME BACK: The NCAA Final Four will return to the West for the first time in 22 years when Pac-12 member ARIZONA STATE hosts at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., April 1 and 3. The last time the event was staged in the West was in 1995 in Seattle where UCLA won its record 11th national championship.

In addition, the Pac-12 Conference will serve as a tournament site host for the first time at the West Regional in San Jose’s SAP Center. League member UTAH will host the First and Second Rounds in Salt Lake City.

MOST WINS IN A SEASON IN CONFERENCE HISTORY:
35 - Arizona (1988), UCLA (2008)
34 - Arizona (2015)
33 - Arizona (2014)
32 - UCLA (2006), Arizona (2017)
31 - UCLA (1995), Stanford (2001), Oregon (2016), Oregon & UCLA (2017)
30 - 14 tied

WEST COAST AP-PRECIATION: Three Pac-12 teams were ranked in the top 10 of the postseason AP Top 25 poll in #4 ARIZONA, #8 UCLA and #9 OREGON - joining the ACC as the only conferences in the nation with three in the top 10.
>> It marked the seventh week this season the league placed three teams in the top 10, equaling the longest stretch in league history:
1997-98: 7 weeks (12/23/97 - 2/3/98); 
2016-17: 7 weeks (1/23/17, 2/6/17 - 3/13/17)

NEW DAWG IN CHARGE: WASHINGTON has named longtime Syracuse assistant coach Mike Hopkins its new head coach, while CALIFORNIA is in the process of filling its head coaching vacancy.

YOUTH MOVEMENT: Seven of the 16 Pac-12 Player of the Week awards went to freshmen, tying the most in a season since the award was created in 1983, matching the seven rookie selections from a 2007-08 campaign that featured the likes of future NBA lottery picks Jerryd Bayless, James Harden, Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo.

A KIDD NAMED BALL: UCLA’s Lonzo Ball was named the USBWA Wayman Tisdale National Freshman of the Year on March 16. He’s the second Conference player to receive the organization’s honor along with CALIFORNIA’s Jason Kidd in 1993 and ARIZONA’s Jason Gardner in 2000.

PAC-12 IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

The Pac-12 Conference has won more NCAA basketball titles (16) than any other conference in the country . . . Oregon’s Tall Firs won the first NCAA Championship in 1939. Stanford claimed the national title in 1942, followed by Utah in 1944 and California in 1959 . . . UCLA established a basketball dynasty that included 10 titles in 12 seasons and a winning streak of seven consecutive NCAA crowns . . . In 1997, Arizona became the sixth different Pac-12 institution to capture the NCAA basketball title.

Records of the following schools were later voided by the NCAA: UCLA (1980 ­– 5-1), OSU (1980 – 0-1, 1981 – 0-1, 1982 – 2-1), CAL (1996 – 0-1).

Note: Several current Pac-12 members competed in the NCAA Tournament while members of other conferences.  Those teams and their records are Arizona (2-3), Arizona State (7-7), Colorado (9-12), Oregon (2-2), Oregon State (5-4), Utah (35-30).

RECORD WATCH

OREGON has set a new single-season league record with 230 blocked shots, eclipsing the previous mark of 225 set by WASHINGTON last season.

UCLA (345), ARIZONA STATE (328) and OREGON (308) are only the fourth, fifth and sixth teams in league history to reach 300 made three pointers in a season along with OREGON (350 in 2007, 304 in 2002) and WASHINGTON (305 in 2011).

While not on pace to break marks, UCLA’s offense has proven to be one of the most-prolific in modern Conference and Division I history as it would rank among the best of the past three-plus decades in several categories:
>> 90.2 PPG - highest in league since 1997-98 (ARIZ, 90.8), highest nationally since 2008-09 (VMI, 93.8)
>> 52.1% FG - highest in league since 1995-96 (UCLA, 52.0%), highest nationally since 2006-07 (NCAA champion Florida, 52.6%)
>> 21.6 APG - highest in league since assists became official NCAA stat in 1983-84, highest recorded in Conference since 1979-80 (OSU, 21.7), highest nationally since 1995-96 (NCAA champion Kentucky, 21.8)
>> 1.9 Asst.-TO ratio - highest nationally since 2005-06 (WVU, 2.01)
>> 345 3FG - Six shy of breaking Oregon’s league record of 350 from 2007.

With 266 assists, UCLA’s Lonzo Ball has shattered the Pac-12 freshman single-season assists mark and is third on the all-time single-season list. At 7.6 apg, he would need four more games to break the league record of 294 set by ARIZONA STATE’s Ahlon Lewis in 1998. Ball is on pace to be the first Conference player to average at least 14 points, seven assists and six rebounds in a season since CALIFORNIA’s Jason Kidd in 1993-94.

UCLA’s Bryce Alford has entered the Pac-12 career top 10 in three-point field goals as his 326 triples (5th active in NCAA) are third most all-time, 19 shy of Tajuan Porter’s record of 345 (ORE, 2007-10). Alford’s 1,909 career points are the second-most among active players from Power 6 programs (Josh Hart, Villanova) and rank 24th in Conference history.

UCLA’s Bryce Alford (113 3FG) and ARIZONA STATE’s Torian Graham (108 3FG) have cracked the Conference’s single-season top 10 in made threes, currently in a tie for third and seventh places, respectively. ARIZONA’s Salim Stoudamire set the mark of 120 set in 2005.  

OREGON junior Jordan Bell (221 blocks) has moved into sixth on the Pac-12’s career blocked shots list, while COLORADO senior Wesley Gordon (204 blocks) is just behind in eighth and OREGON’s Chris Boucher (189) is two shy of the top 10.

2017 PAC-12 TOURNAMENT

Allonzo Trier was named Most Outstanding Player in helping No. 7 Arizona outlast No. 5 Oregon 83-80 on Saturday, March 11 in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game. It marked the first Conference title game between two AP top 10 opponents.

The Wildcats and Trier - who missed three of Arizona’s four losses due to a 19-game suspension - got their payback by avenging their only two regular-season league losses to UCLA and Oregon en route to a sixth tourney title and second in the last three seasons.

In the event’s first year in Las Vegas’ new T-Mobile Arena, the tournament set records for highest-attended quarterfinal session (18,153, Session 4), highest-ever single-session attendance (19,224, Session 5), and total all-session attendance (86,910).

FIRST ROUND
#8 ARIZONA STATE 98, #9 STANFORD 88 (OT)
#5 CALIFORNIA 67, #12 OREGON STATE 62
#7 COLORADO 73, #10 WASHINGTON STATE 63
#6 USC 78, #11 WASHINGTON 73

QUARTERFINALS
#1 OREGON 80, #8 ARIZONA STATE 57
#5 CALIFORNIA 78, #4 UTAH 75
#2 ARIZONA 92, #7 COLORADO 78
#3 UCLA 76, #6 USC 74

SEMIFINALS
#1 OREGON 73, #5 CALIFORNIA 65
#2 ARIZONA 86, #3 UCLA 75

CHAMPIONSHIP
#2 ARIZONA 83, #1 OREGON 80

2017 PAC-12 ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Torian Graham, ARIZONA STATE
Derrick White, COLORADO
Dillon Brooks, Oregon
Tyler Dorsey, Oregon​
Lauri Markkanen, ARIZONA
Allonzo Trier, ARIZONA - Most Outstanding Player

2016-17 PAC-12 AWARDS

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Dillon Brooks, OREGON
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Lonzo Ball, UCLA
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jordan Bell, OREGON
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER: Chimezie, Metu, USC
SCHOLAR-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Josh Hawkinson, WSU
COACH OF THE YEAR: Sean Miller, ARIZONA

ALL-PAC-12 FIRST TEAM

** two-time All-Pac-12 First Team honoree

ALL-PAC-12 SECOND TEAM

Honorable Mention (receiving at least three votes): Jabari Bird (CAL, Sr., G), Chris Boucher (ORE, Sr., F), Tyler Dorsey (ORE, So., G), Drew Eubanks (OSU, So., F), Torian Graham (ASU, Sr., G), Jordan McLaughlin (USC, Jr., G), Thomas Welsh (UCLA, Jr., F)

PAC-12 ALL-FRESHMEN TEAM

Honorable Mention (receiving at least three votes): Malachi Flynn (WSU, G), Charlie Moore (CAL, G)

PAC-12 ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM

** two-time All-Defensive Team honoree

Honorable Mention (receiving at least three votes): Lonzo Ball (UCLA, Fr., G), Aaron Holiday (UCLA, So., G), Kyle Kuzma (UTAH, Jr., F), De’Anthony Melton (USC, Fr., G), Kingsley Okoroh (CAL, Jr., C)

PAC-12 AWARDS NOMINEES & WINNERS

ALL-AMERICANS - OUTLET (TEAM)
Lonzo Ball, UCLA - USA Today (1st), Sporting News (1st), USBWA (1st)
Dillon Brooks, Oregon - USA Today (1st), Sporting News (2nd), USBWA (2nd)
Markelle Fultz, Washington - Sporting News (3rd)
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona - USA Today (3rd), Sporting News (3rd)

NATIONAL FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Lonzo Ball, UCLA - USA Today, USBWA Wayman Tisdale Award

JOHN R. WOODEN AWARD FINAL 15 NATIONAL BALLOT (announced 3/4)
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona
Dillon Brooks, Oregon
Lonzo Ball, UCLA
Markelle Fultz, Washington
>> Most selections of any conference in nation

NAISMITH NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR TROPHY TOP 4 FINALISTS (ann. 3/19) 
Lonzo Ball, UCLA

OSCAR ROBERTSON NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR TROPHY FINALIST (announced 3/13)
Lonzo Ball, UCLA

LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS AWARD FINALISTS (ann. 2/15)
Josh Hawkinson, Washington State

USBWA ALL-DISTRICT TEAMS
DISTRICT VIII
Kyle Kuzma, Utah
Derrick White, Colorado

DISTRICT IX
Lonzo Ball, UCLA (District Player of the Year)
Jordan Bell, Oregon
Dillon Brooks, Oregon
Markelle Fultz, Washington
TJ Leaf, UCLA
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona
Ivan Rabb, California

NAISMITH MEMORIAL BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME POSITIONAL AWARDS FINALISTS (announced week of 3/6)

Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year
Lonzo Ball, UCLA

Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year
Bryce Alford, UCLA

Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year 
Dillon Brooks, Oregon

Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year
Lauri Markkanen, Arizona
TJ Leaf, UCLA

NABC ALLSTATE GOOD WORKS TEAM 
NOMINEES
Sam Singer, California
Stephen Thompson Jr., Oregon State