As dominant as Deandre Ayton was as a freshman for the Arizona Wildcats this season, he missed the first of the major national Player of the Year awards Thursday.
Villanova guard Jalen Brunson picked up the Associated Press Player of the Year Awardย by getting 36 of 65 votes among media voters across the country this season. Oklahoma's Trae Young was second with 15 votes and Ayton was third with seven.
Ayton remains a finalist for all of the other major POY awards to come. The USBWA's Oscar Robertson Award will be announced Friday in San Antonio, while the Naismith Award will be announced Sunday and the Wooden Award will be announced on April 6.
UA's leading scorer and rebounder this season, Ayton has already been named a consensus first-team all-American, the Pac-12 Player of the Year and the Pac-12 Tournament MVP.
In order to have his jersey hung at McKale Center, Ayton needs to win a national award of some sort under UA's current guidelines. He has already qualified, however, for UA's Ring of Honor.
Brunson's success is probably no surprise to UA coach Sean Miller, who coached Brunson with USA Basketball in the 2015 FIBA World Championships. Brunson won MVP honors when he led USA Basketball to the gold medal, and he later became USA Basketball's men's player of the year.
"Jalen Brunson was spectacular this summer for our gold-medal winning U19 team,โ Miller said in a Dec. 2015 USA Basketball statement. โHis performance in our semifinal win over Greece was equally dominant and clutch as we played in front of a passionate, home crowd for our opponent. He became a leader both on and off the court for his teammates, and he is very deserving of this prestigious award.โ
Allonzo Trier also played for the USA U19 team in 2015, while former UA commit Tyler Dorsey played for Greece and then went on to Oregon.
