Oregon's Payton Pritchard, UCLA's Mick Cronin Among 2019-20 Pac-12 Award Winners

Oregon Ducks senior guard Payton Pritchard was named the 2019-20 Pac-12 men's basketball Player of the Year, the conference announced alongside other awards Monday.

The 22-year-old was the sixth Duck to be named Pac-12 Player of the Year and third in the last six years. Joseph Young won for the 2014-15 season, and Dillon Brooks did so in 2016-17.

Pritchard was also named to the All-Pac-12 first team, the only Duck to receive that honor. He is Oregon's leading scorer and distributor with 20.5 points and 5.5 assists per game.

Pritchard made an impressive leap this year after averaging 12.9 points and 4.6 assists across 38 games (37 starts) in 2018-19. The Oregon native was the 2018-19 Pac-12 tournament MOP and helped the Ducks reach the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, where they lost to eventual champion Virginia.

No. 13 Oregon is 24-7 and won the regular-season conference title by defeating Stanford 80-67 on Saturday.

UCLA head coach Mick Cronin was selected as the John R. Wooden Coach of the Year. This is Cronin's first season in charge of the Bruins (19-12) after he was the head coach at Cincinnati from 2006-07 to 2018-19.

Under Cronin, junior guard Chris Smith earned Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year. Smith leads the Bruins with 13.1 points per game alongside 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists. The Chicago native is shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 34.1 percent from three.

No UCLA player had won the award before Smith.

The Bruins finished second behind the Ducks (13-5) with a 12-6 league record.

Arizona forward Zeke Nnaji was the Freshman of the Year. Nnaji recorded 14 double-doubles, third among freshman nationally, while averaging 16.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

The Sixth Man of the Year award belonged to Arizona State junior guard Alonzo Verge Jr. According to the Pac-12, Verge "averaged an NCAA Division I-leading 16.8 points in 19 games off the bench compared to 9.9 points per game in nine starting assignments."

The Defensive Player of the Year was Colorado junior guard-forward Tyler Bey, the only player ranked in the top 10 in the conference in rebounding (9.0 per game), steals (1.5) and blocks (1.2).

Arizona State finished the regular season 20-11 (11-7), while Arizona went 20-11 (10-8) and Colorado was 21-10 (10-8).

The Pac-12 tournament will begin Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The full schedule can be seen here.