Regardless of where Aaron Brooks finished in a vote of Pacific-10 Conference coaches to determine the Pac-10 Player of the Year on Monday, teammate Malik Hairston offered his opinions.
“Aaron Brooks, that’s my player of the year,” Hairston said. “Congratulations to Arron Afflalo. But the other Aaron, that’s my favorite.”
Despite leading the league in scoring at 18 points-per-game, Brooks finished behind UCLA’s Afflalo for Pac-10 Player of the Year when the All-Pac-10 team, the Pac-10 All-Freshman teams as well as the Freshman of the Year and Coach of the Year were announced following a poll of all Pac-10 coaches.
Afflalo, whose Bruins won the Pac-10 title for the second consecutive year, averages 17.5 points per game.
“Aaron had a fabulous year,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said of his senior point guard. “He’s the conference leading scorer and the only time we’ve ever done that was Terrell Brandon (in 1990-91). He’s won a lot of close games for us. We’ve had a very, very good year and Aaron Brooks has had a superb year.”
Oregon has had just three Pac-10 Player of the Year winners since the inception of the award in 1975-76, which was won by Ron Lee of the Ducks. Luke Ridnour (2002-03) and Terrell Brandon also took home the honors.
In response to Monday’s announcement, Kent said he doesn’t necessarily believe the award needs to go to a player on the team that finishes atop the conference.
“No. It needs to go to who we’re going to call the player of the year in the conference, regardless,” Kent said, recalling the dominance of Cal’s Leon Powe and Arizona State’s Ike Diogu. “I don’t care what team you’re on. But, the votes are in and that’s all you can do is move on from there.”
The voting did, of course, place Brooks on the All-Pac-10 team along with eight others. Junior forward Maarty Leunen, who is third in the league in rebounding at 8.6 per-game and averages 11 points per game, earned All-Pac-10 honorable mention.
Freshman point guard Tajuan Porter, who tied the Pac-10 freshman record of three-pointers made in a season with 82, joined a Pac-10 All-Freshman team rich with talent. Among the top 13 scorers in the league, four are freshmen, including Porter. Oregon’s 5-foot-6-inch long-range specialist averages 14 points per game.
Arizona’s Chase Budinger received the Freshman of the Year honor after averaging 16.1 points per game, slightly less than Cal freshman Ryan Anderson’s 16.5 points per game.
“I was a little bit surprised. I thought it was going to be Chase or Anderson because Anderson had a great year in terms of Freshman of the Year,” Kent said.
Porter deflected the honor of being named to such a distinguished list.
“I’m just trying to win,” Porter said. “I don’t really care about individual attention. A lot of freshmen in the country, let alone this conference, have made an impact on college basketball, with me being one of them.”
About the only thing that didn’t surprise Kent was the naming of Washington State first-year head coach Tony Bennett as Coach of the Year. The Cougars (24-6, 13-5 overall) finished second in the Pac-10 this season after being projected to finish last in the conference in the preseason.
“I thought Tony Bennett was a great choice for Coach of the Year, considering where they were picked to finish in the conference,” Kent said. “Him and (father) Dick both have done a great job with that program.”
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