A day after Pac-12 coaches named Deandre Ayton the conference's Player of the Year, the Arizona freshman forward was named a first-team Sporting News All-American and became the AP's Pac-12 Player (and newcomer) of the Year.
The AP Pac-12 first team also included both Ayton and Trier from Arizona, while the AP named Utah's Larry Krystkowiak its Pac-12 Coach of the Year instead of Washington's Mike Hopkins, who received the coach-voted conference Coach of the Year award.
Another difference between the AP Pac-12 team and the league's version is that the AP honors a five-man first team and a five-man second team. The coaches vote for a 10-man first team and a five-man "second" team (making it effectively a third team).
The full AP Pac-12 teams:
FIRST TEAM
u-Deandre Ayton, Arizona, F, 7-1, 260, Fr, Nassau, Bahamas
u-Aaron Holiday, UCLA, G, 6-1, 185, Jr, Chatsworth, California
u-Allonzo Trier, Arizona, G, 6-5, 205, Jr, Seattle
Reid Travis, Stanford, F, 6-8, 245, Jr, Minneapolis
Jordan McLaughlin, USC, G, 6-1, 185, Jr, Etiwanda, California
SECOND TEAM
Tra Holder, Arizona State, G, 6-1, 180, Sr, Los Angeles
Chimezie Metu, USC, F, 6-1, 225, Jr, Lawndale, California
Justin Bibbins, Utah, G, 5-8, 150, Sr, Carson, California
Tres Tinkle, F, 6-6, 195, So, Missoula, Montana
Noah Dickerson, Washington, F, 6-8, 245, Jr, Atlanta
U- Unanimous
(FWIW, this was the ballot I sent to the AP's John Marshall: POY: Ayton; COY: Krystkowiak; Newcomer: Ayton; First team: Ayton, Holiday, Travis, Trier, McLaughlin; Second team: Bibbins, Dickerson, Thomas Welsh, Metu, Matisse Thybulle. I weighed performance in conference play very heavily.)
The Sporting News first team All-Americans included Ayton, Villanova's Jalen Brunson, Duke's Marvin Bagley, Kansas' Devonte' Graham and Oklahoma's Trae Young.
SN's second team consisted of Xavier's Trevon Bluiett, Ohio State's Keita Bates-Diop, Michigan State's Miles Bridges, Saint Mary's Jock Landale and West Virginia's Jevon Carter.
SN's third team: Texas Tech's Keenan Evans, UNC's Luke Maye, Purdue's Carsen Edwards, Villanova's Mikal Bridges and Holiday.
(Also FWIW, the ballot I sent to SN's Mike DeCourcy was exactly the same, except I had Evans on the second team and Carter on the third team).
Ayton was also named the United States Basketball Writers of America's District IX Player of the Year while he and Trier made the USBWA all-District IX team (states that border the Pacific Ocean plus Arizona).
That was a 10-player team that included: Ayton, Trier, ASU's Tra Holder, Holiday, Saint Mary's Jock Landale, McLaughlin, Metu, Travis, Welsh and Gonzaga's Johnathan Williams. The district's COY was Gonzaga's Mark Few.
Trier was not named one of the five finalists for the Basketball Hall of Fame's Jerry West (shooting guard) award, something Trier wasn't too wild about.
Shot 50-40-90 in conference gettin 20pts and up a game the whole season but got took off the finalist list 🤷🏽♂️ been consistent all year and my body of work shows that but #OpinionsOverStatistics of course.
— Allonzo Trier (@ISO_ZO) March 6, 2018
