Trio of Ducks honored by Pac-10
Three Oregon men’s basketball players were recognized by the Pacific-10 Conference coaches on Monday, earning postseason honors.
Senior guard Aaron Brooks was named to the all-conference team, junior forward Maarty Leunen received honorable mention and guard Tajaun Porter was named to the all-freshman team.
Brooks, the Pac-10’s leading scorer, was also named one of 22 finalists for the Wooden Award and becomes Oregon's first all-Pac-10 player since Luke Jackson in 2004.
The senior from Seattle is currently locked in a battle with USC’s Nick Young and UCLA’s Arron Afflalo for the league's overall scoring title.
Brooks comes into the Pac-10 tournament averaging 18.0 points per game, while Young is at 17.5 and Afflalo, the league’s player of the year, is at 17.2. Brooks also ranks fourth in the league in assists (4.4 per game), seventh in steals (1.7 per game), fifth in three-pointers per game (2.3) and first in minutes played (37.1 per game).
Leunen ranks third in the Pac-10 in rebounding at 8.6 per game and is sixth in steals at 1.5 per game. He has 10 double figure rebounding games this season and eight double-doubles. The junior from Redmond is averaging 11.0 points per game.
Last Saturday versus Oregon State, Porter tied Jason Kapono’s Pac-10 freshman record with his 82nd three-pointer of the season. Kapono, a guard for the Miami Heat, established the current mark at UCLA in 2000. The Oregon single-season record of 94 by Orlando Williams in 1994-95.
First-year Washington State coach Tony Bennett was named Pacific-10 Conference coach of the year, and two of his players were named to the all-conference team.
Bennett, 37, guided Washington State to a 24-6 overall record and a 13-5 league mark to finish second in the Pac-10 — the Cougars’ best finish in the league since the 1982-83 team also finished second with a 14-4 record. The 24 victories are the most by WSU since a 26-6 mark in 1940-41.
Bennett is the third Washington State coach to win the honor, joining George Raveling (1975-76 and 1982-83) and Kelvin Sampson (1990-91).
WSU junior guards Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver were among nine players named to the All-Pac-10 team Monday.
Afflalo of UCLA was named player of the year, and Arizona’s Chase Budinger was freshman of the year. The vote was taken by Pac-10 coaches, who were not allowed to pick their own players.
Joining Brooks, Low, Weaver and Afflalo on the all-Pac-10 team were Young, Marcus Williams of Arizona, Jon Brockman of Washington, Lawrence Hill of Stanford and Darren Collison of UCLA.
The Bruins and Cougars were the only two teams with two selections to the all-conference squad.
Honorable mentions went to: Leunen, Ryan Anderson (California), Spencer Hawes (Washington), Brook Lopez (Stanford), Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (UCLA), Jeff Pendergraph (Arizona State), Gabe Pruitt (USC), Ivan Radenovic (Arizona), Mustafa Shakur (Arizona), Josh Shipp (UCLA), Lodrick Stewart (USC) and Ayinde Ubaka (California).
The all-freshman team was comprised of Porter, Hawes, Lopez, Anderson, Gibson and Budinger.
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