Holiday, Welsh Secure All-Pac-12 Team Acclaim
March 05, 2018 | Men's Basketball
SAN FRANCISCO โ UCLA junior Aaron Holiday has earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors, while senior Thomas Welsh has been named a second-team selection, the Pac-12 Conference announced on Monday.
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Holiday was also named as one of five players to the league's All-Defensive Team. In addition, Kris Wilkes was among five players named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.
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Holiday enters the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament as the league's leading scorer (20.1 ppg) and has secured All-Pac-12 acclaim for the first time in his career. The 6-foot-1 guard from Chatsworth, Calif., ranks second in the league in assists per game (5.8), third in three-point percentage (43.9) and first in minutes played (37.3 mpg). He has helped lead UCLA to a 20-10 record and an 11-7 mark in Pac-12 action.
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In addition, Holiday has been named as one of five selections on this season's Pac-12 All-Defensive Team. Holiday was an honorable mention selection in this category as a sophomore (2016-17). This season, he is joined by Deandre Ayton (Arizona), Jordan McLaughlin (USC), Matisse Thybulle (Washington) and Kenny Wooten (Oregon) as all-defensive team selections.
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Welsh has secured second-team acclaim for the first time in his career, having been listed as one of seven honorable mention selections as a junior (2016-17). Welsh is one of just two players in the Pac-12, along with Ayton, to have averaged a double-double this season (12.7 ppg, 10.5 rpg).
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Welsh, a 7-foot center from Redondo Beach, Calif., has totaled 16 double-doubles in 30 games for UCLA. He will enter the Pac-12 Tournament this week tied as the No. 5 all-time leading scorer in school history with former UCLA standout Don MacLean (992 rebounds).
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Kris Wilkes, a 6-foot-8 guard from Indianapolis, Ind., was named to this season's Pac-12 All-Freshman Team with Ayton, Daejon Davis (Stanford), Jaylen Nowell (Washington) and McKinley Wright IV (Colorado). Wilkes has averaged 14.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, starting all 30 contests for UCLA.
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Holiday, who is currently averaging 20.1 points per game, could become UCLA's first player to average at least 20 points per game over the course of a full season since Ed O'Bannon (20.4 ppg) in 1994-95. He has become the first guard at UCLA to average more than 19 points per game in a season since Reggie Miller (22.3 ppg) in 1986-87.
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The All-Pac-12 teams include 10 student-athletes as first-team selections and five student-athletes as second-team selections. Honorable mention candidates have received at least three votes. The All-Freshmen and All-Defensive Teams include five players each.
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Aside from Holiday, the league's nine other first-team selections include Ayton, Justin Bibbins (Utah), Noah Dickerson (Washington), Tra Holder (Arizona State), McLaughlin, Chimezie Metu (USC), Tres Tinkle (Oregon State), Reid Travis (Stanford) and Allonzo Trier (Arizona).
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Welsh was joined as a second-team selection by David Collette (Utah), George King (Colorado), Payton Pritchard (Oregon) and Dusan Ristic (Arizona).
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The Pac-12 Conference will reveal its individual yearly awards during the Pac-12 Sports Report at 5 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Networks. The special hour-long program will include announcements of the league's Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Scholar-Athlete of the Year and John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
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