Today the Pac-12 conference will announce its individual awards and All-Conference teams for men's basketball.

The coaches, not media, vote on these honors but I'm going to create my own teams and awards anyways. First off, I'd do away with the silly practice of having 10 members of the first team, because it's clearly ridiculous to have 10 players all on the same tier and defeats the purpose of ranking them at all.

Also, each team will consist of three guards and two forwards, and there will be a first, second and third team, just as Dr. Naismith obviously intended.

All the statistics are conference-only.

Player of the Year: Joseph Young, Oregon
I have a feeling that the coaches will select Arizona's T.J. McConnell for Pac-12 Player of the Year and follow their longstanding tradition of picking the best player on the best team. The Wildcats are certainly the best team and McConnell is their engine, so there is certainly logic to the choice, even if at times it can result in a dubious selection (see: Randle, Jerome).

But I fail to see how any player came close to impacting the Pac-12 season as much as Oregon guard Joseph Young. Forget that he leads the conference in scoring with 19.9 points per game against Pac-12 teams while ranking in the top-15 in both assists and steals, or that he's the best free-throw shooter in the conference.

Young took a team that was picked No. 8 in the conference preseason media poll, that played games with as few as seven scholarship players after dismissing three of them, and that had the most prominent local columnist calling for its head coach's job in the middle of the season and basically shot them to the No. 2 spot in the conference.

If McConnell never came to Arizona from Duquesne, the Wildcats would still be the conference's best team. Easily. Maybe they'd lose one more Pac-12 game. But if Young never headed west from Houston I'm not sure Oregon is a top-10 team in the Pac-12 this year. Seriously, go look at that roster again. Not one other player came close to sniffing my All-Conference teams.

But because of his play, UO finished ahead of Utah, a team that still has reasonable Final Four aspirations. No one was more important to his team than Young and that's why he's my Pac-12 Player of the Year.

Defensive Player of the Year: Gary Payton II, Oregon State
Just like his daddy. Gary Payton won the award in 1987 and his son should win it in 2015 after leading the Pac-12 in steals per game (3.06), while ranking sixth in blocked shots (1.28).

Like his dad, the younger Payton is a long and a fantastic athlete and he has a way of always seeming to show up just when offensive players think they're in the clear to send what would have been an easy basket into the crowd.

There is obviously a strong case to be made for Arizona's Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, a lengthy forward that routinely locked up opponent's best players. But Payton II was more dynamic and had an unmatched ability to change the momentum of a game with his defense and for that he gets the nod.

Coach of the Year: Dana Altman, Oregon

Much of the turmoil that plagued the Ducks this offseason and put them in such a precarious situation at the start of the year can be blamed on Altman, so it's tempting to punish him for that. But it's impossible to escape the fact that even had Oregon's offseason been nice and quiet and if all three dismissed players had suited up, no one outside of Nike headquarters would have expected the Ducks to finish second in the conference race.

It was remarkable for Altman to successfully navigate all the distraction's surrounding this UO team – even the self-inflicted ones – and guide the Ducks to wins in nine of their last 10 games.

Freshman of the Year: Stanley Johnson, Arizona
Easy choice. Johnson was the leading scorer and second-leading rebounder on the conference's best team. He's a basketball player designed by Ferrari in a lab and a sure bet to be the first Pac-12 player drafted by the NBA.

Most Improved Player: Josh Hawkinson, Washington State

This was an even easier choice than freshman of the year. Last year Hawkinson averaged 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds. This year he averaged 14.7 and 10.8 and was the conference's best rebounder. He went from bench-warmer to holding the school record with 19 double-doubles (and counting) in one season. Again, this is a really obvious choice.

First Team:
G: Joseph Young, UO – He's the MVP in my book, so of course he's on the first team.
G: T.J. McConnell, AZ – Does a great job managing the conference's best team.
G: Delon Wright, UTAH – Maybe the best pure basketball player in the conference, does everything well.
F: Stanley Johnson, AZ – Incredible athlete that is constantly getting more polished.
F: Josh Hawkinson, WSU – The only player to average a double-double.

Second Team:
G: Chasson Randle, STAN – One of the conference's best scorers. Gets to the charity stripe at will.
G: Tyrone Wallace, CAL – Top-15 in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game.
G: Nigel Williams-Goss, UW – Did a lot with little support. Dangerous scorer and passer.
F: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, AZ – Very good on offense, exceptional on defense and also a great rebounder.
F: Kevon Looney, UCLA – Freshman was a terror on the offensive glass.

Third Team:
G: DaVonté Lacy, WSU – A crafty scorer who hit a clutch shot on Senior Night.
G: Bryce Alford, UCLA – Inconsistent but capable of excellent games when he's on.
G: Norman Powell, UCLA – A dynamic scorer with quick hands on defense.
F: Stefan Nastic, STAN – A consistent forward in a conference lacking quality post players.
F: Jakob Poeltl, UTAH – Freshman 7-footer should be a star next season.

Freshman-Team:

G: Jordan McLaughlin—Off to a stellar debut before injury struck.
F: Dillon Brooks, OR—Impressive defender around the rim.
F: Stanley Johnson, AZ—Only realistic freshman lottery pick.
F: Jakob Poeltl, UTAH—Lots of tools, needs to be more consistent.
F: Kevon Looney—Very active for a freshman.
(OK, I broke my own rule about the number of guards and forwards on each team. This was not a good year for freshman guards, to say the least.)

Defensive-Team:
G: Gary Payton II, OSU—Does it all on defense.
G: Norman Powell, UCLA—Will steal the ball and dunk it in the same breath.
G: Delon Wright, UTAH—Just a solid all-around basketball player on both ends.
F: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, AZ—Smothers guards and forwards alike.
F: Robert Upshaw, UW—Dismissed with 11 games to go and still leads Pac-12 in blocked shots.

And as promised, here are the links:

-- Yesterday we took a closer look at WSU's win over Colorado.

-- The Pac-12 Blog looks at some of the questions surrounding the Cougars heading into spring football practice.

-- Percy Allen hands out his own Pac-12 Awards.

-- Here is the case FOR T.J. McConnell as conference Player of the Year.

-- Should the Pac-12 consider selling an equity stake of the Pac-12 Networks?

-- Stanford's Christian McCaffrey is playing all over the field in spring practice.

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