BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Jerome Randle has an individual award to go with the team honor of winning the Pac-10 regular season championship.
Randle won the Pac-10 player of the year award on Monday, beating out Stanford's Landry Fields and Washington's Quincy Pondexter for the honor after leading the Golden Bears to their first conference title in 50 years.
"I really had a lot of confidence in myself to just go out and win the championship," Randle said. "I never intended on being the Pac-10 player of the year. I always wanted to be. I just said that if it happens, it happens. All I was really focusing on was winning the Pac-10 title."
In other awards handed out by the league, Arizona forward Derrick Williams was picked as the league's top freshman, Arizona State's Herb Sendek was selected as the coach of the year, Oregon State's Seth Tarver was named defensive player of the year, and Southern California's Nikola Vucevic won most improved player.
Randle became the fifth Cal player to win the award, joining Jason Kidd (1994), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996), Ed Gray (1997) and Sean Lampley (2001). He averaged 18.7 points and 4.5 assists per game.
Cal opens the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday against the winner of the play-in game between Oregon and Washington State.
"We still have a lot basketball to play," Randle said. "We need to go down to the Pac-10 tournament, and take that as well. But right now, it's really exciting."
Randle led the league in free throw shooting at 92.7 percent and finished in the top five in scoring, assists and 3-pointers per game.
With 1,745 points, Randle is closing in on the school record of 1,776 held by Lampley. Randle already has made the most 3-pointers and has the highest free throw percentage in school history.
"It's the culmination of a great four years here at Cal," coach Mike Montgomery said. "There have been a lot of ups and downs, and he finally came out on top. I do think it's a testament to our team performance that individuals win awards as a result of team success."
Williams became the sixth Arizona player to win the top freshman award, joining Sean Elliott (1986), Mike Bibby (1997), Michael Wright (1999), Salim Stoudamire (2002) and Chase Budinger (2007). He finished eighth in the league in scoring at 15.7 points per game and fifth in rebounding at 7.0
Tarver had 69 steals this year and led a Beavers defense that allowed only 60.4 points per game in conference play, the second best mark in the league.
Vucevic led the Pac-10 in rebounding at 9.4 per game and averaged 10.7 points. Last season, he averaged 2.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game for USC.
Sendek led the Sun Devils to a second-place finish in the conference, despite losing James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph to the NBA. Arizona State was picked seventh in the preseason poll.
Randle, Williams, Fields and Pondexter were joined on the 10-player all-conference team by Cal's Patrick Christopher, Nic Wise of Arizona, Isaiah Thomas of Washington, Ty Abbott of Arizona State, Michael Roll of UCLA and Klay Thompson of Washington State.
The awards are voted on by the league's coaches.
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Randle won the Pac-10 player of the year award on Monday, beating out Stanford's Landry Fields and Washington's Quincy Pondexter for the honor after leading the Golden Bears to their first conference title in 50 years.
"I really had a lot of confidence in myself to just go out and win the championship," Randle said. "I never intended on being the Pac-10 player of the year. I always wanted to be. I just said that if it happens, it happens. All I was really focusing on was winning the Pac-10 title."
In other awards handed out by the league, Arizona forward Derrick Williams was picked as the league's top freshman, Arizona State's Herb Sendek was selected as the coach of the year, Oregon State's Seth Tarver was named defensive player of the year, and Southern California's Nikola Vucevic won most improved player.
Randle became the fifth Cal player to win the award, joining Jason Kidd (1994), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (1996), Ed Gray (1997) and Sean Lampley (2001). He averaged 18.7 points and 4.5 assists per game.
Cal opens the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday against the winner of the play-in game between Oregon and Washington State.
"We still have a lot basketball to play," Randle said. "We need to go down to the Pac-10 tournament, and take that as well. But right now, it's really exciting."
Randle led the league in free throw shooting at 92.7 percent and finished in the top five in scoring, assists and 3-pointers per game.
With 1,745 points, Randle is closing in on the school record of 1,776 held by Lampley. Randle already has made the most 3-pointers and has the highest free throw percentage in school history.
"It's the culmination of a great four years here at Cal," coach Mike Montgomery said. "There have been a lot of ups and downs, and he finally came out on top. I do think it's a testament to our team performance that individuals win awards as a result of team success."
Williams became the sixth Arizona player to win the top freshman award, joining Sean Elliott (1986), Mike Bibby (1997), Michael Wright (1999), Salim Stoudamire (2002) and Chase Budinger (2007). He finished eighth in the league in scoring at 15.7 points per game and fifth in rebounding at 7.0
Tarver had 69 steals this year and led a Beavers defense that allowed only 60.4 points per game in conference play, the second best mark in the league.
Vucevic led the Pac-10 in rebounding at 9.4 per game and averaged 10.7 points. Last season, he averaged 2.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game for USC.
Sendek led the Sun Devils to a second-place finish in the conference, despite losing James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph to the NBA. Arizona State was picked seventh in the preseason poll.
Randle, Williams, Fields and Pondexter were joined on the 10-player all-conference team by Cal's Patrick Christopher, Nic Wise of Arizona, Isaiah Thomas of Washington, Ty Abbott of Arizona State, Michael Roll of UCLA and Klay Thompson of Washington State.
The awards are voted on by the league's coaches.
S,I.com
