Honors Roll In For Brooks, Teammates

Oregon junior Dillon Brooks was named Pac-12 player of the year in a vote of conference coaches Monday, and a first-team all-American by USA Today.

In addition, junior Jordan Bell was named Pac-12 defensive player of the year by conference coaches. Brooks was Oregon's lone member of the 10-player all-conference first team, Bell was a second-team pick and Chris Boucher and Tyler Dorsey earned honorable mention.

The regular-season conference co-champion Ducks return to action Thursday as the No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, against either Stanford or Arizona State in a quarterfinal game beginning at noon in T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Brooks, who led the Ducks with 16.0 points per game in the regular season, is the fifth conference player of the year in program history and the second in three years.

"I thought that should have been a unanimous choice," Bell said. "He's killed it. I thought he should have got it last year, too, but I'm happy they finally voted for him."

A first-team Associated Press preseason all-American, Brooks returned from a foot injury in time to help the Ducks stabilize themselves following a 2-2 start. Oregon went 25-2 after Brooks' season debut against Georgetown, including an undefeated mark at home that extended the Ducks' NCAA-best active home win streak to 42 games.

And Brooks was at his best in big moments, hitting game-winning three-pointers Dec. 28 in Oregon's Pac-12 opener against UCLA, and at California on Feb. 22. Brooks also scored the Ducks' final 12 points in a one-point win over Arizona State on Feb. 4; he was named Pac-12 player of the week following all three of those clutch performances.

USA Today was the first organization to honor a UO player with first-team all-American recognition since Aaron Brooks was named to the Wooden Award first team in 2007. Luke Jackson received first-team accolades from ESPN, The Sporting News and Basketball Times in 2004.

Brooks also was accorded second-team all-America status by The Sporting News on Monday, and third-team status from NBC Sports.

Bell became Oregon's first ever Pac-12 defensive player of the year. He finished the regular season in the conference's top 10 in rebounds (10^th,7.9), steals (eighth, 1.4) and blocks (fourth, 2.1). Bell was joined on the conference all-defensive team by Boucher; that duo has helped the Ducks average 6.8 blocks per game, No. 2 in the NCAA.

"He does it all," Brooks said of Bell. "Blocked shots, gets steals, rebounds the basketball at a high rate. He's well deserving, for sure."

Brooks is now a two-time first-team all-Pac-12 selection, and Boucher was a repeat member of the all-defensive team.

In other conference honors Monday, UCLA's Lonzo Ball was named freshman of the year, Arizona's Sean Miller was named John R. Wooden Coach Of The Year and USC's Chimezie Metu was named most improved.