NCAA Basketball: New leaders emerge in 2019-20 National Player of the Year race
By Brian Rauf
. Previous: 2nd. Cassius Winston. 4. player. 486.
Stats: 18.8 ppg, 6.2 apg, 2.2 rpg
This was a bad week for Cassius Winston and Michigan State to have one bad outing, as the one outing was a blowout loss at Purdue in which the Spartans were beaten in every phase of the game.
Winston was well off his normal game, too, recording just 10 points and five assists. The performance snapped a streak of five consecutive games with at least 21 points for Winston, who only shot 30.8 percent from the field in the contest.
That, plus the play of the top three players on the list, caused Winston’s slight drop, but he has enough of a track record to know he’s still a serious candidate. That said, the senior needs to have big games against both Wisconsin and Indiana this week.
515. . . Previous: 3rd. Payton Pritchard. 3. player
Stats: 19.4 ppg, 5.9 apg, 4.5 rpg
Pritchard is going to win Pac-12 Player of the Year and is the clear leader of a very good Ducks team. He has already provided a handful of signature moments this season thanks to his clutch play at the end of some of the biggest games Oregon has played.
Some of that was on display on Saturday, when he tied their game against Arizona in the closing seconds and then forced overtime with a block on Zeke Nnaji. That performance, though inefficient, helped give him some more positive momentum, yet that boost was neutralized by Oregon’s stunning loss to Washington State on Thursday night.
Pritchard will remain in this race throughout the remainder of the season, but Oregon can’t lose many more games like they did against Wazzu. Another signature moment or two in a big game won’t hurt, either.