Pac 12 Basketball Mid-Season Honors and UCLA

Jon Wilner may be the best writer covering the PAC 12 and at a minimum he is worth reading.  Wilner came out with his list of "Pac-12 basketball: Midseason honors and all-conference teams."  While there is still a lot of basketball to be played his list can be seen as a preview of what the final PAC 12 season lists will look like.

Looking at it from the UCLA perspective Kevon Looney is runner up for Freshman of the Year and second team all PAC 12 with Norman Powell.  That sounds about right.

My only UCLA related quibble is Tony Parker is better than third team Center Steven Nastic and has regularly pwned him in head-to-head matchups.  I think Tony should make the list as a third teamer.

What is more interesting though are a couple other factors that the list.

1.  The list includes 10 guards for its 15 slots, yet UCLA starting backcourt does not make the list.  (Norman Powell is a guard but he plays the three or small forward for UCLA most of his minutes.)

2.  Bryce Alford ranks fourth in the conference in assists and eighth in scoring.  Those sort of numbers at UCLA usually lead to one making at least honorable mention.  It is noteworthy that he does not make any of the lists but every player ahead in scoring or assists made the list. I think it fair to say that Wilner is reflecting what the rest of the PAC 12 media knows (and not generally speaking the National announcers) Bryce is not a top PAC 12 guard despite gaudy statistics.

3.  Tony Parker is a secret weapon.  The PAC 12 is a guard heavy league.  Parker is a relative rarity in that he is a true post with a very good back to the basket game.  Parker should be a top option for UCLA.  I will add that in the Utah game, Utah decide to take away Parker.  That worked out fine as it made it easier on our guards.

Hat tip to Chrissorr for giving me his thoughts on this that I incorporated.