Pac-12 coaches had to submit their votes for conference postseason honors Sunday, and Sean Miller may have had the hardest job of anyone.
Because he couldn’t vote for Deandre Ayton.
Miller said his uniquely skilled Bahamian big man will easily become the Pac-12’s Player of the Year on Monday (6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) based on voting by the conference’s 12 coaches, who are not allowed to pick their own players.
Doing so would make Ayton the first freshman to win the award since UCLA’s Kevin Love did so in his one-and-done season of 2007-08.
Often, Pac-12 coaches will favor juniors or seniors for Player of the Year honors if it is a close call but …. Miller says this one is not close.
Not even considering that UCLA senior Aaron Holiday and Stanford junior Reid Travis have put up eye-opening numbers while leading their teams to top-four finishes in the conference.
“It’s unanimous,” Miller said.
Ayton is also listed as a contender for postseason Player of the Year awards such as the Wooden and Naismith, and Miller said he didn’t need to campaign for him.
“Who he is speaks for itself,” Miller said. “He’s a tremendous player. He does it on offense. He does it on defense. He does it in big moments. He’s physically like Superman but he’s also very skilled.
“Usually you’re skilled and not Superman, but if you’re a guy like him that’s physically gifted, plus you have the skill level and the intelligence — he’s gonna be a player that I think will go down as one of the great ones to play our game. That’s how I see him. He’s a once-in-a-generation player.
“I doubt if I will ever coach anyone like him again. I don’t mean that we won’t try, but there just aren’t many Deandres walking around.”
UA senior guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright said there are intangibles that make Ayton special, too.
“He’s up at the top,” PJC said. “It’s been pretty fun playing with him this year. It’s everything about him. It’s his character. It’s how he approaches practices and games, and how he interacts with his teammates. That’s what I’ll take away from him the most.”
Ristic for all-conference?
The more interesting vote then, for Arizona, might be who else makes the Pac-12’s 10-player all-conference team: Just Allonzo Trier, or do Dusan Ristic and Rawle Alkins have a chance?
Alkins missed three conference games because of foot soreness, while Ristic has operated in the shadow of Ayton even as his play accelerated as Pac-12 play went on.
Ayton, Trier, Travis and Holiday are locks, while Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle, ASU’s Tra Holder and USC’s Jordan McLaughlin and Chimezie Metu all have strong arguments. Among the many others who could attract votes are players such as UCLA’s Thomas Welsh (12.3 points, 10.4 rebounds in conference play), Washington’s Noah Dickerson (15.4, 8.7) and Utah’s Justin Bibbins (15.8 points, 44.4 percent 3-point) shooting, who all led their teams to high or higher finishes than expected.
Whatever happens, it’s clear that Ristic has steadily improved throughout his Arizona career, even as Miller said emotions kept him from playing well Saturday, when Ristic was just 1 of 9.
“Early in his freshman year, I can remember watching him practice against Kaleb (Tarczewski) and worrying that Kaleb could almost break him in half because Kaleb was so physically strong,” Miller said. “But Dusan, he’s never backed down. He’s worked hard and obviously he’s had a great senior year.”
More senior honors
Among the seniors Miller and the Wildcats said goodbye to on Saturday included Tucson native Talbott Denny, who used to enter McKale Center on his dad’s shoulders as a toddler, and Miller’s oldest son, Austin.
Austin Miller is a senior manager for the Wildcats.
“I’m proud of him, love him to death,” Sean Miller said. “Being a manager, you can make the argument that it prepares you for life better than anything because you’re behind the scenes. You don’t get a lot of credit, but you’re incredibly important to the organization.
“It’s not just Austin. We have a great managerial program and a lot of guys have left that program to go on and do great things and I feel like he’ll be one of them.”
Arizona’s other departing senior managers are Zack Alexander, Justyn Thomas and Michael Kish.
Denny, meanwhile, scored his first point as a Wildcat on Saturday after returning as a grad transfer from Lipscomb in 2016 and sitting out last season with a torn ACL.
With 27 seconds left Saturday, Denny drove and picked up a foul under the basket, hitting the second of two free throws for his first point with UA.
“Talbott is a fantastic kid, a great student and has helped us every day that he’s been here,” Miller said.
UA also honored walk-on guard Tyler Trillo, a redshirt junior who is graduating this spring.
Rim shots
- Miller said he anticipated having Ira Lee cleared by Monday after the freshman forward missed four games with a concussion . Miller said Lee went through UA’s pre-game shoot-around on Saturday but had not yet been cleared for contact play.
- Los Angeles guard Brandon Williams, who announced he decommitted from Arizona on Friday, tweeted Sunday that he has since received a scholarship offer from Oregon. Of UA’s two other 2018 decommits, Shareef O’Neal committed to UCLA and Jahvon Quinerly to Villanova. The Wildcats have no players currently in their 2018 recruiting class, and will lose at least seven players this spring.
