Player of the Year – Caleb Love, ARIZONA Defensive Player of the Year – Adem Bona, UCLA Freshman of the Year – Myles Rice, WASHINGTON STATE Most Improved Player of the Year – Maxime Raynaud, STANFORD Sixth Player of the Year – Koren Johnson, WASHINGTON John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year – Kyle Smith, WASHINGTON STATE
For only the second time (2019-20), Pac-12 Men’s Basketball’s five major player awards went to five different programs in a vote of the 12 Conference coaches, headlined by ARIZONA’s Caleb Love as the 2023-24 Pac-12 Player of the Year. UCLA’s Adem Bona was tabbed the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, WASHINGTON STATE’s Myles Rice the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, STANFORD’s Maxime Raynaud the Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year, and WASHINGTON’s Koren Johnson the Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year. League runner-up Washington State was the lone school to collect multiple honors as Kyle Smith was selected John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
The 2024 Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament is set to take place March 13-16 in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena. Fans can follow coverage of the event all week long at on the Tournament Central page.
PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA Caleb Love, ARIZONA (Sr., G, St. Louis, Mo.)
Love was in the air all season long in Tucson as the Wooden, Naismith, Robertson and Cousy national awards finalist led Arizona to the outright Pac-12 regular-season title and the verge of a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
The league’s fourth-leading scorer at 18.7 points per game, Love has done the majority of his damage where needed most – away from home – averaging a league-best 20.1 points in 15 games away from McKale Center.
In Conference games only, Love ranked second in the league in scoring (20.0 ppg) while connecting on a league-high 59 three pointers.
Love is the 10th Arizona player to earn the Conference’s Player of the Year honor (11th total award).
PAC-12 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA Adem Bona, UCLA (So., F, Ebonyi, Nigeria)
Bona, who is among 15 national candidates for the Naismith Trophy Defensive Player of the Year, is the second consecutive and fourth UCLA player to receive the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award, joining Jaylen Clark (2023), Russell Westbrook (2008) and Nigel Miguel (1985).
Last season’s Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Bona currently ranks second in the Pac-12 with 1.84 blocks per game, jumping to a league-leading 2.10 blocks per game in Conference play to pace the Bruins’ top ranked scoring defense (65.7 ppg allowed).
According to College Basketball Reference, Bona currently leads the Pac-12 in Defensive Box Plus/Minus (4.7), ranks second in Defensive Rating (96.1) and third in Defensive Win Shares (1.8) – the only Conference player in the top 5 in all three categories.
Bona joins USC’s Evan Mobley (2020-21) and Oregon State’s Gary Payton (1986-87) as the only Pac-12 players to win both Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in their careers.
PAC-12 FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA Myles Rice, WASHINGTON STATE (G, Columbia, S.C.)
One of college basketball’s best stories this season has been the emergence of Rice, who after redshirting in 2021-22 was forced to miss the 2022-23 season while receiving treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Healthy and in his first season on the court at WSU, Rice quickly gelled with a largely new lineup and led the Cougars to one of the best regular seasons in program history with 23 wins and a second-place Pac-12 finish.
Among the league leaders in scoring (13th, 15.3 ppg), assists (4th, 3.9 apg) and steals (5th, 1.55 spg), Rice is 1-of-2 freshmen to rank in the top 15 in all three categories (Isaiah Collier, USC). His 35 points in an 89-75 victory at Stanford on Jan. 18 set a WSU freshman record and were the most in a game for a Conference freshman since 2017.
Rice is Washington State’s first true Freshman of the Year – Bryan Rison won the league’s inaugural Rookie of the Year award as a junior transfer in 1978-79.
PAC-12 MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA Maxime Raynaud, STANFORD (Jr., F, Paris, France)
Using the momentum from his breakout performance in helping France to gold at the 2023 FIBA U20 European Championship, Raynaud returned to The Farm to pace Stanford in scoring (15.6 ppg), field goal percentage (57.8%) and rebounding (9.6 rpg) – the lone Pac-12 player to finish the regular season ranked in the top 10 in all three categories, doing so in less than 30 minutes per game (29.2 mpg).
He ranks third in the league with 13 double-digit rebound games and 11 double-doubles, more than tripling his career totals entering the season (4 & 3).
Raynaud is the Cardinal’s fourth recipient of the Most Improved Player honor, joining Dwight Powell (2012-13), Anthony Brown (2013-14) and Jaiden Delaire (2020-21).
PAC-12 SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA Koren Johnson, WASHINGTON (So., G, Seattle, Wash.)
Johnson has been electric off the bench for Washington this season – averaging the most points (10.9 ppg) among Conference players with single-digit starts (four) and less than 25 minutes per game (23.7 mpg).
He erupted for a career-high 30 points in an 85-65 victory over Stanford in February – the only one of the Conference’s 22 30-point games accomplished by a non-starter – and reached double-figure scoring 17 times.
He is Washington’s first recipient of Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year since Al Moscatel in 1985-86.
To be eligible, players must not exceed more than one-third starts in league games played.
JOHN R. WOODEN PAC-12 COACH OF THE YEAR Kyle Smith, WASHINGTON STATE
A candidate for Naismith National Coach of the Year, Smith has engineered one of the nation’s most unexpected seasons to have Washington State on the brink of its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2008.
Needing to replace four starters from the previous season, including 2023 NBA Draft selection Mouhamed Gueye, Smith retooled and guided the Cougars to 23 regular-season victories, their most since 2006-07, and a program-record tying 14 Conference victories.
Picked 10th in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, WSU’s second place showing equaled the largest outperformance of preseason prediction in league history (+8).
Smith joins former WSU coaches George Raveling (1976, 1983), Kelvin Sampson (1991) and Tony Bennett (2007) to earn the Conference’s Coach of the Year honor. It’s also his first Coach of the Year award and likely first NCAA Tournament of his 14-year head coaching career.
THE VOTE: Coach of the Year, All-Conference, All-Freshman and All-Defensive Teams, and Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year are voted on by the coaches. Coaches are not permitted to vote for themselves or their own players for the honors.
The complete All-Conference Teams:
PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Caleb Love, Sr., G, ARIZONA
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Adem Bona, So., F, UCLA
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Myles Rice, G, WASHINGTON STATE
MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Maxime Raynaud, Jr., F, STANFORD
SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Koren Johnson, So., G, WASHINGTON
JOHN R. WOODEN COACH OF THE YEAR
Kyle Smith, WASHINGTON STATE
ALL-PAC-12 TEAM
FIRST TEAM
SECOND TEAM
HONORABLE MENTION (receiving at least three votes): Isaiah Collier, USC; Frankie Collins, ASU; Jordan Pope, OSU; Deivon Smith, UTAH; Jaylen Wells, WSU.
* denotes number of All-Pac-12 First Team honors
PAC-12 ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
HONORABLE MENTION (receiving at least three votes): Kanaan Carlyle, STAN; KJ Lewis, ARIZ.
PAC-12 ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
HONORABLE MENTION (receiving at least three votes): Keshad Johnson, ARIZ; Spencer Jones, STAN; Joshua Morgan, USC; KJ Simpson, COLO.
* denotes number of All-Defensive Team honors
– Pac-12.com –
