Pritchard Advances to Naismith Semifinalist List

Senior Payton Pritchard was named one of 10 semifinalists for the 2020 Citizen Naismith Trophy men’s player of the year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club on Thursday.

The West Linn, Ore., native is the only player in the nation averaging at least 20 points, four rebounds and five assists per game.

Pritchard is also one of five finalists for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award and is on the lists for the Wooden Award (final 20), and Oscar Robertson Trophy (final 12).

The only player from the Pac-12 among the Naismith semifinalists, Pritchard is one of just four players nationally who is leading his conference in both scoring (20.2 points per game) and assists (5.4 per game). If he maintains his scoring and assists leads, Pritchard would join 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 accomplish that feat. All three were consensus First Team All-Americans and Payton and Terry were National Players of the Year.

Pritchard has scored at least 20 points against nine different Pac-12 opponents this season.

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 leads the nation with 138 consecutive starts.

He is the only player in Pac-12 history with 1,800 career points, 600 career assists and 500 career rebounds. Already the school’s record holder in assists (645), wins (103) and games started (138), Pritchard is also on pace to become the school’s career leader in steals and games played and could become just the second 2,000-point scorer in program history.

Oregon and Maryland were the only schools to be represented among both the men’s and women’s Naismith semifinalists. Sabrina Ionescu, Ruthy Hebard and Satou Sabally were women’s semifinalists for the Ducks.

The Naismith Trophy will announce its five finalists on March 17. The 2002 Naismith Trophy winner will be named at the Final Four in Atlanta.

No. 13 Oregon hosts California Thursday at 8 p.m. at Matthew Knight Arena and Stanford at 8 p.m. on Saturday to close out the 2019-20 regular season.

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