Pac-12 MBB picks: Washington State collects two of Hotline’s four individual honors

The Pac-12 will reveal the final postseason award winners in conference history on Tuesday, but we see no reason to wait.

The Hotline’s selections are based largely on performance in conference play.

Coach of the Year: Washington State’s Kyle Smith. An easy call, although Cal’s Mark Madsen did first-rate work in his rookie season. The Cougars were picked 10th in the preseason media poll and finished second — the greatest upside surprise in the conference’s expansion era. For that, Smith stands as a contender for national honors and will be one of the hottest commodities on the market this spring.

Player of the Year: Arizona G Caleb Love. The transfer from North Carolina was the best player on the best team in a season that lacked superlative individual efforts by players on contending teams. Love averaged 20 points per game in league play and was superb in several of the Wildcats’ biggest wins.

Freshman of the Year: Washington State G Myles Rice. A surprise winner on so many levels, starting with his personal story. Rice missed the 2022-23 season while receiving treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, then returned to lead the Cougars to their surprising run through the conference.

Defensive Player of the Year: Arizona State G Frankie Collins. There was no obvious choice, no player as dominant defensively as UCLA’s Jaylen Wells was last year. But Collins was a disruptive force on a weekly basis and averaged 2.7 steals per game, third nationally among players from the power conferences.

All-conference picks

(Note: The Pac-12 will select 10 players for the first team and five for the second. We believe in the traditional approach with five players per team.)

First team: Arizona G Caleb Love, WSU G Myles Rice, Colorado G KJ Simpson, Oregon State G Jordan Pope, Washington F Keion Brooks

Second team: Cal G Jaylon Tyson, WSU F Isaac Jones, Utah F Branden Carlson, Stanford F Maxime Reynaud, Arizona C Oumar Ballo

Third team: Oregon G Jermaine Couisnard, ASU G Frankie Collins, WSU F Jaylen Wells, Colorado F Tristan da Silva, Oregon C N’Faly Dante

All-defense: ASU G Frankie Collins, Arizona G Jaden Bradley, USC G Kobe Johnson, UCLA F Adem Bona, Oregon C N’Faly Dante

All-transfer: Arizona G Caleb Love (from North Carolina), Cal G Jaylon Tyson (Texas Tech), WSU F Jaylen Wells (Sonoma State), Utah G Deivon Smith (Georgia Tech), WSU F Issac Jones (Idaho)

All-freshman: WSU G Myles Rice, Oregon G Jackson Shelstad, UCLA G Sebastian Mack, USC G Isaiah Collier, Colorado F Cody Williams