Pac-12 Awards: Arizona's Zeke Nnaji earns Freshman of the Year

The regular season ended over the weekend meaning Monday was the day for the Pac-12 Conference to hand out its season-ending awards ahead of the Pac-12 Tournament this week in Las Vegas.

Big man Zeke Nnaji was the big winner for Arizona as the power forward beat out other top first-year players such as USC's Onyeka Okongwu and Washington's Isaiah Stewart to earn the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year award. Nnaji leads the conference with 14 double doubles so far this season and that puts him third among freshmen in the country at this point in the year.

He also led the Wildcats in scoring during the regular season with 16.3 points per game to go with a team-high 8.6 rebounds per game.

Nnaji is the fifth player under head coach Sean Miller to win the award, and he becomes the 10th player in program history to earn the honor joining former Wildcats such as Deandre Ayton, Aaron Gordon, Salim Stoudamire and Sean Elliott.

The UA star was also included as part of the five-man all-freshman team as well as the Pac-12's First Team as one of the 10 players included as part of that list.

Arizona Freshman of the Year winners (Pac-12/Pac-10)

Player	Year

Sean Elliott	1986
Mike Bibby	1997
Michael Wright	1999
Salim Stoudamire	2002
Chase Budinger	2007
Derrick Williams	2010
Aaron Gordon	2014
Stanley Johnson	2015
Deandre Ayton	2018
Zeke Nnaji	2020

In addition to Nnaji, Arizona point guard Nico Mannion was named to the league's all-freshman team giving the Wildcats the most members on that list. Mannion was also included as part of the five-man Pac-12 Second Team along with Timmy Allen (Utah), Tyler Bey (Colorado), Matt Bradley (Cal) and Jonah Mathews (USC).

UA senior guard Dylan Smith earned an honorable mention nod for the Pac-12 All-Defensive team.

UCLA head coach Mick Cronin earned the conference's coach of the year award while Oregon point guard Payton Pritchard took home the league's player of the year honor. Bey earned the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award while UCLA wing Chris Smith was named the conference's most improved player.

Arizona State guard Alonzo Verge, Jr. earned the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year award.

The Pac-12 Tournament begins Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Wildcats will open the tournament with a rematch against Washington on Wednesday with tip off set for 2:30 p.m. MST.

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