Honored Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players

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The Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team was founded in 1904 to represent the University of Arizona in intercollegiate competition and has participated in the sport all but one season since its inception. Over the course of the team's history, the Wildcats' performance has ranged from losing records to resulting in a national championship.

Contents

During periods of both ascendancy and mediocrity, individual Arizona players of exceptional ability have received various accolades. In total, Wildcats have been named to an All-America team 32 times, and All-Pac-12 Conference team 110 times. Of the All-America selections, thirty-seven players received first-team honors a total of fifty-eight times. Sixteen players were named consensus first-team All-Americans a total of twenty-five times.

Wildcats have won several nationally recognized individual awards, including the Bob Cousy Award, the Senior CLASS Award, Academic All-America of the Year, and several of the National Player of the Year awards. The College Basketball Hall of Fame has inducted one former Arizona player, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has enshrined three. Former Wildcats head coach have also been inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

All-Americans

Derrick Williams Derrick Williams of Arizona Wildcats.jpg
Derrick Williams
Nick Johnson Nick Johnson Arizona Wildcats.jpg
Nick Johnson

Each year, numerous publications and organizations release lists of All-America teams, hypothetical rosters of players considered the best in the nation at their respective positions. Some selecting organizations choose more than one roster of All-Americans, in which case they use the terms "first team", "second team", and "third team" as appropriate. Some selectors also award honorable mentions to outstanding players who did not make any of their teams. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a college sports governing body, uses officially recognized All-America selectors to determine the "consensus" selections. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors based on a point system computed from the four different all-America teams. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention or fourth team or lower are used in the computation. The top five totals plus ties are first team and the next five plus ties are second team. Over time, the sources used to determine the consensus selections have changed, and since 1997, the NCAA has used these selectors to determine consensus All-Americans: Associated Press (AP), the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), the Sporting News (TSN), and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players that were named first, second or third team All-Americans:

Consensus All-Americans

Source: Arizona 2029–21 Media Guide [1]

Fourteen Arizona players have received AP All-America honorable mention:

All-Pac-12 Conference

The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players that were named first, second or third team All-Pac-12:

First team All-Pac-12

Second team All-Pac-12

Third team All-Pac-12

Note

Pac-12 All Freshman Team

Note

Pac-12 All Newcomer

Note

Pac-12 All-Defensive Team

Pac-12 All-Academic Team

All-Pac 12 Tournament Team

Note

Source: Arizona 2023–24 Media Guide [1]

Award Recipients

Players

John R. Wooden Award [2]

National player of the year [2]

Frank Hessler Award [2]

NCAA Regionals most outstanding player [3]

Wayman Tisdale Award [2]

Julius Erving Award

Karl Malone Award

Pac-12 player of the year (AP, UPI, Coaches)

The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players who have been named Pac-12 Player of the Year: [2]

Pac-12 freshman of the year (AP, Coaches)

The following is a list of Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players who have been named either Pac-12 Freshman of the Year (awarded by the league's head coaches, and open only to freshmen) or Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year (awarded by the AP and open to any player in his first year at an Pac-12 school, including transfers). [2]

Pac-12 6th Man of the Year

  • 2021 – Jordan Brown
  • 2022 – Pelle Larsson

Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year

Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year

  • 2022 – Christian Koloko
  • 2023 – Oumar Ballo

Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year

  • 2020: Stone Gettings

Pac-12 Tournament MOPs

Coaches

National Coach of the Year

AP Coach of the Year

NABC Coach of the Year

USBWA Coach of the Year

WAC Coach of the Year

John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award

  • Lute Olson – 2002 [4]

Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award

  • Lute Olson – 2001 [4]

Pac-12 Coach of the Year

Source: [4]

  • Lute Olson – 1986
  • Lute Olson – 1988
  • Lute Olson – 1989
  • Lute Olson – 1993
  • Lute Olson – 1994
  • Lute Olson – 1998
  • Lute Olson – 2003
  • Sean Miller – 2011
  • Sean Miller – 2014
  • Sean Miller – 2017
  • Tommy Lloyd - 2022

Hall of Fame inductees

The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame has commemorated many of the sport's most outstanding and most innovative personalities. Among them are one former Arizona players and one former Arizona head coaches.

College Basketball Hall of Fame

Players

Coaches

Retired numbers

To have his number retired, a player must win one of the following six widely recognized player of the year awards: [5]

Players:

NBA draft picks

McDonald's All-Americans

The following 28 McDonald's All-Americans listed below have signed with Arizona. An asterisk, "*", Indicates player did not finish his college career at Arizona. A cross, "†", indicates player did not begin his college career at Arizona.

McDonald's All-American Game MVPs

Olympians

The following Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players have represented their country in basketball in the Summer Olympics:

YearPlayerCountryLocationMedal
1984 Leon Wood Flag of the United States.svg  United States  (USA) Los Angeles Gold
2004 Richard Jefferson Flag of the United States.svg  United States  (USA) Athens Bronze
2012 Andre Iguodala Flag of the United States.svg  United States  (USA) London Gold
2020 Nico Mannion Flag of Italy.svg  Italy  (ITA)Tokyo 5th Place
2020 Josh Green Flag of Australia.svg  Australia  (AUS) Tokyo Bronze
2024 Paris 7th Place
2024 Chase Budinger Flag of the United States.svg  United States  (USA)Paris T-9th Place
U of A Olympians

NBA champions

The following Arizona Wildcats men's basketball players have gone on to win an NBA championship. A Total of 33 NBA championships have been won by 15 former Wildcats players.

Player (College Years)Finals YearTeam
Bret Brielmaier (2004–08) 2016* Cleveland Cavaliers*
Jud Buechler (1986–90) 1996, 1997, 1998 Chicago Bulls (3)
Quinton Crawford (2011–13) 2020* Los Angeles Lakers*
Bison Dele (1988–91) 1997 Chicago Bulls
Sean Elliott (1984–89) 1999 San Antonio Spurs
Bruce Fraser (1984–87) 2015*, 2017* 2018*, 2022* Golden State Warriors (4)
Channing Frye (2001–05) 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers
Andre Iguodala (2002–04) 2015, 2017, 2018, 2022 Golden State Warriors (4)
Richard Jefferson (1998–01) 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers
Steve Kerr (1983–88) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2015*, 2017*, 2018*, 2022* Chicago Bulls (3), San Antonio Spurs (2), Golden State Warriors (4)*
Miles Simon (1994–98) 2020* Los Angeles Lakers*
Jason Terry (1995–99) 2011 Dallas Mavericks
Luke Walton (1999-03) 2009, 2010, 2015* Los Angeles Lakers (2), Golden State Warriors*
Aaron Gordon (2013–14) 2023 Denver Nuggets
Zeke Nnaji (2019–20)2023Denver Nuggets

Note: *Coach or Assistant coach

Glossary

Abbreviations
PositionsSelectors
G Guard ABAABAUSAAP Associated Press AWAmerican WeeklyBABasketball America
F Forward BNBasketball NewsBTBasketball TimesBWBasketball WeeklyCBSCBS
C Center CBSSCBS SportlineCNVR Converse COL Collier's Weekly CP Central Press Association
ESPNESPNFOXFOXHLMSHelms FoundationINSInternational News Service
JWJohn Wooden TeamNABC National Association of Basketball Coaches NAISNaismithNBACONBA Coaches
NEA Newspaper Enterprise Association RARupp AwardSISports IllustratedTSN The Sporting News
UP United Press UPI United Press International USBWA United States Basketball Writers Association

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References

  1. 1 2 "Arizona 2020–21 Media Guide History and Records pp. 51" (PDF). arizonaathletics.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 28, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Honors Section 2". pac-10.org. October 26, 2007. Archived from the original on October 29, 2008. Retrieved March 15, 2008.
  3. ↑ "Final Four Most Outstanding Players". cbs.sportsline.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2008.
  4. 1 2 3 "Arizona Team Page". Pac-10. October 26, 2007. Archived from the original on October 28, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Retirement of jerseys" at Wildcats website
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