Inside The Huskies

On Eve of Big Ten Tourney, Steinbach Picks Up Slew of Honors

The freshman forward from Germany is really good and everyone agrees on that.
Dan Raley|
Hannes Steinbach was named third-team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media.
Hannes Steinbach was named third-team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media. | Dave Sizer photo

Individual honors keep coming to Hannes Steinbach like points and rebounds -- in big bunches.

On Tuesday, before the Big Ten Tournament tipped off, the league's coaches and media members revealed their all-conference choices and each had the University of Washington's standout freshman forward as a third-team all-conference player, with the young German showing up on the coaches' all-freshman team, as well.

Add to that, the Associated Press chose its own team and named the 6-foot-11, 250-pound Steinbach as a second-unit All-Big Ten player.

He was the only UW player to receive any accolades for a team (15-16 overall, 7-13 league) that finished tied for 12th in the conference standings with USC (18-13, 7-13) and will face the Trojans on Wednesday afternoon in the opening round.

Steinbach was hard not to like, coming up with 20 double-double outings so far this season, the most in the Big Ten since 1997.

Entering the conference tourney, he averages 18.6 points and 11.6 rebounds per game, while shooting a highly efficient 58.6 percent from the floor.

Hannes Steinbach often is very upbeat on the basketball floor.
Hannes Steinbach often is very upbeat on the basketball floor. | Dave Sizer photo

As a third-team all-league pick, Steinbach shared this honor with Michigan's Aday Mara, UCLA's Tyler Bilodeau and Wisconsin's John Blackwell on both coaches and media teams. For the fifth spot, the coaches paired him with Michigan's Morez Johnson Jr., while the media went with Indiana's Lamar Wilkerson.

Only the coaches put together a Big Ten all-freshman team and they went with Keaton Wagler and David Mirkovic of Illinois, Trey McKenney from Michigan, Braden Frager of Nebraska and Steinbach.

Wagler, a 6-foot-6 guard who averages 17.9 points per game, was named freshman of the year, though many felt it easily could have been Steinbach.

The AP elevated Steinbach to its second-unit All-Big Ten team, along with Iowa senior guard Bennett Stirtz, Ohio State senior guard Bruce Thornton, Wisconsin senior guard Nick Boyd and Nebraska junior forward Pryce Sandfort.

The wireservice went with Purdue senior guard Braden Smith, Michigan State junior guard Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan grad forward Yaxel Lendeborg, Northwester senior forward Nick Martinelli and Wagler as first-team selections.

The Huskies left for Chicago and the Big Ten Tournament on Monday and begin play against USC with tipoff at 11:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday and the game shown by the Peacock channel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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