Pargo player of year
The Gonzaga men’s basketball program has so many streaks going in the West Coast Conference, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of them all. A couple of more continued on Tuesday.
Junior guard Jeremy Pargo was named the WCC player of the year, the eighth year in a row a Gonzaga player has won the award. Blake Stepp doubled up in 2003 and 2004 and Derek Raivio shared the honor with Santa Clara’s Sean Denison last year.
“It’s a great honor to be recognized with some of the great players to ever play in this conference – Steve Nash, Adam Morrison, John Stockton, Doug Christie,” said Pargo, who thanked his teammates and coaches. “I was very surprised, actually, when I got the call earlier (Tuesday). I didn’t expect to get it, but I’m happy to be recognized for such a prestigious award.”
The Bulldogs had three first-team selections. Pargo was joined by sophomore guard Matt Bouldin and senior forward David Pendergraft, marking the 13th consecutive year Gonzaga has had multiple All-WCC selections. Seven times during that stretch the Bulldogs have had at least three All-WCC selections, the last in 2004-05 (Ronny Turiaf, Morrison and Raivio).
“It’s great for all of them and it’s great that the league coaches rewarded David,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “The guy is an incredible ambassador not just for our program but all of college basketball.”
Few and Randy Bennett of Saint Mary’s shared coach of the year honors. It’s the seventh time in eight years Few has been honored. No other WCC coach has received the award more than four times. Under Few, the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs (24-6) claimed their eighth consecutive regular-season title and they’ll attempt to win their fifth straight WCC tournament championship later this week in San Diego.
Pargo averaged 11.8 points and a conference-leading 6.2 assists. He led the WCC in assists-to-turnover ratio (1.90). Bouldin led GU and was ninth in the conference at 13.1 points per game. In WCC play, Pendergraft made 52.4 percent of his 3-pointers and averaged 10 points.
Few credited Pargo for modifying his game from the non-conference to conference seasons.
“He was, at times, trying to do too much because a lot of times his teammates weren’t doing much,” Few said. “We had to kind of come together and figure out how he could help them do more and in the process do less himself. It took some real maturity and growth on his part.”
Other WCC awards went to Patrick Mills (top newcomer) and Diamon Simpson (top defender) of Saint Mary’s.
Gonzaga’s Austin Daye and Steven Gray were joined by Mills, Pepperdine’s Malcolm Thomas and San Diego’s Rob Jones on the All-Freshman team. Daye also earned All-WCC honorable mention accolades, along with Thomas and Omar Samhan of Saint Mary’s.
Daye led the WCC in free-throw percentage (89.6) and was 15th in scoring (11.0 ppg). Daye’s 135 rebounds are the most by a Zag this season. Gray, who started 16 games after returning from a fractured wrist, averaged 7.8 points and made 43.8 percent of his 3-pointers in WCC games.
Santa Clara’s Brody Angley and John Bryant, San Diego’s Gyno Pomare and Brandon Johnson, San Francisco’s Dior Lowhorn, and Simpson and Mills rounded out the All-WCC team.