Pac-12 Basketball Notebook: Remy Martin's Surge, Tres Tinkle's Milestones, Stanford's Slide, and So On

Oregon's Payton Pritchard still heads the player-of-the-year race

Author:
Jake Curtis
Publish date:
Jan 27, 2020 7:42 PM EST

The four big issues of this past weekend:

---Arizona State’s Remy Martin is on a tear: Martin has scored 20 points or more in seven straight games and leads the Pac-12 in scoring.

---Stanford looks more like what we expected: The Cardinal was alone in first place 10 days ago, but its loss to Cal was its second straight defeat, and it has not hit the tough part of its schedule.

---Tres Tinkle reaches milestones, but it doesn’t matter: The Oregon State standout set a school record for consecutive made free throws, moved into second place in Oregon State career scoring and kept his double-digit scoring run intact. But the Beavers are slipping out of the conference race. (See the statistics of the week.)

---Shooting 50 percent not good enough: UCLA shot 50 percent from the field and 83.3 percent from the foul against Oregon – and lost by 21 points. Washington shot 51.1 percent from the floor and 78.6 percent from the line against Utah -- and lost by a point.

And we forge ahead with our weekly categories:

Top Five Teams (at the Moment)

---1. Oregon (17-4, 6-2) – The 11-ranked Ducks won twice at home to stay on top.

---2. USC (16-4, 5-2) – Taking Oregon to double overtime in Eugene and crushing Oregon State in Corvallis suggests the Trojans may hang around for a while.

---3. Colorado (16-4, 5-2) – You could make a case the 20-ranked Buffaloes should be No. 2 on this list after beating Washington State and Washington by 22 and 14 points, respectively.

---4. Arizona (13-6, 3-3) – The earlier win over Colorado keeps the Wildcats at No. 4 despite the one-point road loss to Arizona State.

---5. Arizona State (12-7, 3-3) – The Sun Devils’ supplant Stanford, whose loss to Cal damages the Cardinal’s resume.

okongwu — Onyeka Okongwu (21) -- Photo by Soobum Im, USA TODAY Sports

Pac-12 player-of-the-year standings

---1. Payton Pritchard, Oregon (19.7 points, 5.8 assists, 4.3 rebounds) – Best player on the best team, and he performs well at crunch time.

---2. Onyeka Okongwu, USC (17.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.1 blocks) – After a slow start in Pac-12 play, Okongwu averaged 21.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.0 blocks over the past three games.

---3. Remy Martin, Arizona State (19.7, 4.2 assists) – The Sun Devils are becoming a factor because of Martin, who is averaging 23.7 points in conference games.

---4. McKinley Wright IV, Colorado (13.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.2 assists) – Everything looks good except for the turnover column (3.4 turnovers in Pac-12 games and six against Washington).

---5. Nico Mannion, Arizona (14.1 points, 5.8 assists)/Zeke Nnaji, Arizona (16.9 points, 8.7 rebounds) – Take your pick on which one does more for the Wildcats.

Pac-12 freshman-of-the-year standings

---1. Isaiah Stewart, Washington (18.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.2 blocks) – He has been unable to keep the Huskies in contention, though.

---2. Onyeka Okongwu, USC (17.3 points, 8.9 rebounds) – Okongwu’s production is becoming more consistent.

---3. Zeke Nnaji, Arizona (16.9 points, 8.7 rebounds) – He has had a double-double in four of six conference games.

---4. Nico Mannion, Arizona (14.1 points, 5.8 assists) – Mannion is virtually tied with Pritchard for the conference lead in assists per game.

---5. Tyrell Terry, Stanford (15.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists) – Terry is barely hanging on to the fifth slot after his mediocre game in the loss to Cal. Utah’s Rylan Jones is closing the gap for the final spot.

Pac-12 Player of the Week

--- Winner: Chris Duarte, Oregon – Check out his stat lines in the sweep of the Los Angeles schools: 30 points, 11 rebounds, 8 steals, 2 blocks against USC; then 24 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 steals, 2 blocks against UCLA.

---Runnerup: Remy Martin, Arizona State -- He played just one game this past weekend, but his 24 points, playmaking an unabated energy were instrumental in the Sun Devils’ rally from a 22-point deficit to beat Arizona.

Note: Payton Pritchard has been so consistently productive that it seems he has to do something superhuman to get a weekly award. I know I am guilty of passing him over.

Team on the Rise

---Arizona State (12-7, 3-3) – The Sun Devils have won two in a row, and the one-point win over Arizona when it overcame a 22-point deficit was huge.

Team on the Skids

---Oregon State (12-8, 2-6) – Early wins over Colorado and Arizona made the Beavers look like contenders, but they are now riding a four-game losing streak.

Team on a Mystery Tour

---Stanford (15-4, 4-2) – The overall record is impressive, but the Cardinal has lost two in a row and has yet to face Oregon, Colorado and Arizona.

Team Stats of the Week

---Utah shot 63 percent from the floor in its win over Washington State after shooting under 40 percent in its previous two games, both losses.

---Cal committed just seven turnovers, including three in the second half, in the win over Stanford, which leads the Pac-12 in forcing turnovers (16.53 per game).

Ugly Team Stat of the Week

---UCLA had a season-high 23 turnovers in the loss to Oregon, and 14 minutes into the game its turnover total (14) matched its point total (14).

Player Stats of the Week

---Oregon’s Chris Duarte had 14 steals in the weekend sweep of USC and UCLA.

---Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle made his 35th consecutive free throw during the game against USC, setting a school record. He also scored in double figures for the 85th straight game and passed Steve Johnson for second place in Oregon State career scoring. Tinkle has 2,050 career points and needs 123 points to overtake Gary Payton as Oregon State’s all-time scorer. (By the way, the Beavers lost to USC by 20 points.)

Ugly Player Stats of the Week

---Stanford duo Tyrell Terry and Spencer Jones combined to make this category. Freshman Terry has been a boon for the Cardinal this season, which is why his 3-for-8 shooting (0-for-1 on three-pointers), 1 assist and five turnovers in the loss to Cal was such a disappointment. Jones wowed them in Los Angeles the previous week with his quick release and outside shooting, going 11-for-17 on three-pointers. But he disappeared against Cal, missing both of his three-point attempts and finishing with two points.

Quotes of the Week

---“That’s one way to try to break the press.” – An Oregon fan, according to the Los Angeles Times, when UCLA was hit with a technical foul for having six players on the court.

---"He was the difference in the game. No doubt about it.” -- Oregon coach Dana Altman, to the Oregonian, talking about Chris Duarte – not Payton Pritchard – in the double-overtime win over USC. Duarte had 30 points, 11 rebounds and eight steals.

---“Some of the dunks tonight were just spectacular. The first one was good down the lane, and the one about a minute or two later was just ridiculously impressive. He’s a special young man, very explosive, especially with a running start.” – USC coach Andy Enfield, to the Los Angeles Times, on the athleticism of Onyeka Okongwu during the win over Oregon State.

---“I’d be lying if I said we had an answer for their zone.” – Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak, to the Salt Lake Tribune, after his team beat Washington by a point despite shooting 33.9 percent from the field.

Top Upcoming Game This Week

---Saturday, February 1 – Colorado (16-4, 5-2) at USC (16-4, 5-2) – Teams with identical records face off at the Galen Center, and first place might be on the line.

Cal High Point of the Week

Are you kidding? Cal beat Stanford by two points before a season-high crowd of 9,168 at Haas Pavilion.