The Pacific 10 Conference named two Wildcats to its All-Pac-10 team yesterday, placing Andre Iguodala and Channing Frye on the list of the 10 best players in the conference.
Frye, a junior, and Iguodala, a sophomore, both received the honor for the first time.
Frye, an honorable mention recipient last season, received the nod despite being the third highest scorer on the Wildcats. He averaged 15.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest, but his most telling stat might be the 2.11 blocks per outing. The 6-foot-11 center is the active Pac-10 leader in blocks with 166, 70 blocks more than Rory O'Neil of Southern California, who sits in second place.
Iguodala is averaging nearly a double-double at 12.7 points and 8.8 boards per game. At his current pace, the Springfield, Ill., native is on par to become the first Wildcat to lead the team in rebounds, assists and steals in a single season.
Iguodala's 10 double-doubles on the year include three triple-doubles, one short of California guard Jason Kidd's Pac-10 career mark of four triple-doubles.
The Wildcat duo joins Josh Childress and Chris Hernandez from Stanford, Washington's Nate Robinson, USC's Desmon Farmer, Arizona State's Ike Diogu, Oregon's Luke Jackson, Oregon State's David Lucas and Leon Powe of California on the all-conference list.
Powe became just the 10th freshman in conference history to be named to the All-Pac-10 squad and the first Golden Bear selected since Shareef Abdur-Rahim in 1996. The 6-foot-8 frosh also earned the conference's Freshman of the Year award.
Arizona's Hassan Adams and Salim Stoudamire were named honorable mention honorees. Stoudamire and Adams rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the UA team in scoring.
Stoudamire, the Pac-10's fourth-highest scorer with an average of 19.0 points per game, earned his second honorable mention award in as many years. As a freshman, Stoudamire was selected as the conference's Freshman of the Year.
Shakur named to All-Freshman team
In his first season as a Wildcat, Mustafa Shakur has been selected to the Pac-10-All-Freshman team. The freshman from Philadelphia, who is averaging slightly over 30 minutes per game, is second on the Wildcats in assists behind 2002-03 All Freshman team selection Iguodala with 123.
Stoudamire, a former Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, had this advice for Arizona's rising star.
"Keep playing the way you've been playing," Stoudamire said.
The most surprising selection to this year's Pac-10 team may be Arizona's Ivan Radenovic, who was chosen as an honorable mention for the All-Freshman squad. After joining the Wildcats on Dec. 28, the freshman from Belgrade, Serbia, has averaged 6.4 points and 3.1 rebounds in 20 games.
Win stops slide in rankings for UA
The UA's 106-81 win against ASU Sunday stopped a two-week slide in the polls.
As Arizona enters the Pacific 10 Conference championship week, the Wildcats find themselves up one spot in The Associated Press' final regular season poll at No. 21.
Despite the rise in the rankings, Arizona finished the regular season in third place in the Pac-10. The UA is poised for a rematch with Southern California in the conference tourney's opening round on Thursday.
Arizona's third-place finish is the program's lowest since the Wildcats went 11-7 and finished fifth in conference play during the 1996-97 season. That squad went on to defy the odds, defeating three No. 1 seeds en route to winning the National Championship.
Last season's No. 1 Arizona squad was upset in the first round of the Pac-10 tourney by No. 8 UCLA. This year, Arizona will be bringing a new attitude to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"Last year, we thought it would be a cakewalk," Stoudamire said. "Now there definitely is a sense of urgency."
Arizona's other third-year veteran, Frye, thinks this year's conference tournament is the perfect test of Arizona's mental toughness.
"This is why we work hard all season," Frye said. "We are going to go out and leave it all on the court."
After thrashing rival Arizona State by 25 points on Sunday to close out the regular season, the Wildcats finished the season 19-8, 11-7 in the Pac-10.
Arizona has now been ranked in the AP Top 25 for 286 consecutive weeks.