Payton Pritchard Becomes Oregon’s First Consensus All-American in 80 Years
EUGENE, Ore. – Payton Pritchard became Oregon’s first consensus first team All-American in 80 years after being named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ All-America first team on Tuesday.
The NABC team was the fourth and final team upon which consensus All-America status is based. In addition to the NABC, Pritchard was a first team selection by the Associated Press and the Sporting News, and a second team pick by the United States Basketball Writers Association.
Prior to Pritchard, the last Duck named a consensus All-American was John Dick in 1940. Dick led Oregon to the 1939 NCAA Championship. Pritchard is the sixth consensus first team All-American in program history. Since 1940, four Ducks have garnered second team consensus All-America status, Ron Lee in 1975, Greg Ballard in 1978, Luke Jackson in 2004 and Dillon Brooks in 2017.
“It’s a great feeling knowing that my hard work paid off but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and coaches,” said Pritchard. “You don’t get these awards without having a winning team around you.”
University of Oregon NCAA Consensus First Team All-Americans
Eddie Durno, 1921
Hugh Latham, 1924
Algot Westergren, 1926
Urgel Wintermute, 1939
John Dick, 1940
Payton Pritchard, 2020
The NCAA applies a standardized point system of three points for a first team selection, two points for the second team and one point for the third team from the four outlets to determine the five-player consensus All-America team.
Joining Pritchard as consensus first team All-Americans for 2019-20 were Luka Garza of Iowa, Markus Howard of Marquette, Myles Powell of Seton Hall and Obi Toppin of Dayton.
Pritchard on Tuesday also became just the second first team All-America selection by the NABC, joining Lee from 1975.
He was joined in the NABC first team by Garza, Howard, Toppin and Udoka Azubuike of Kansas
University of Oregon NABC All-Americans
Ron Lee, 1975, 1st Team
Ron Lee, 1976, 3rd Team
Greg Ballard, 1977, 3rd Team
Luke Jackson, 2004, 3rd Team
Dillon Brooks, 2017, 2nd Team
Payton Pritchard, 2020, 1st Team
The 2020 Pac-12 Player of the Year, Pritchard was one of just three players nationally to average at least 20 points, four rebounds and five assists per game.
He joined Gary Payton (Oregon State, 1989-90), Damon Stoudamire (Arizona, 1994-95) and Jason Terry (Arizona, 1998-99) as the only players in conference history to lead the league in both scoring and assists. Like Pritchard, the previous three players to do that were all consensus first team All-Americans and Payton and Terry were National Players of the Year.
Pritchard also led the league with 88 three-pointers, joining Stoudamire (112) as the only players to top all three categories in the same season.
The West Linn, Ore., native was one of just four players nationally who led his conference in both scoring (20.5 points per game) and assists (5.6 per game).
Pritchard is one of five national finalists for both the Naismith Trophy and the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award. He is also one of 15 student-athletes on the Wooden Award National Ballot and one of 12 midseason finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy.
Named the national player of the week by three different organizations this season (Naismith Trophy, Oscar Robertson Trophy, NCAA.com) and twice named Pac-12 player of the week, Pritchard led the nation with 140 consecutive starts.
He is the only player in Pac-12 history with 1,900 career points, 600 career assists and 500 career rebounds.
Pritchard finished his career as school record holder in assists (659), wins (105) games played (144) and games started (140). He ranks second in both UO career steals with 211 and three-pointers with 288. His 1,938 career points rank fourth all-time at Oregon.
Pritchard scored at least 20 points against 10 different Pac-12 opponents this season.