NCAA Basketball: Obi Toppin leads in national POY power rankings
By Brian Rauf
. . Previous: 4th. Payton Pritchard. 4. player. 515
Stats: 19.6 ppg, 5.8 apg, 4.3 rpg
Oregon only had one game this past week and it wasn’t pretty – a 70-60 loss to Stanford. Pritchard wasn’t particularly great either, scoring 16 points on just 5/21 shooting. It was the fewest points he had scored in 2020, and the Ducks continued their recent trend of less-than-stellar play.
Those struggles, plus the lack of marquee games Oregon has played in, has kept Pritchard from being able to rise up this list.
The Ducks need him to be really good and, for the most part, he has been. However, Pritchard has to be great in order stay on this list, especially considering the lack of big games he has been in – and he hasn’t been doing that part of late.
That’s why next week is crucial for Pritchard’s Player of the Year candidacy. On Thursday, Oregon will host a ranked Colorado team that has already beaten the Ducks. It will be on national television on ESPN and should be another ranked-vs-ranked matchup. It’s also the second-to-last game against a ranked team Oregon currently has on its schedule.
Pritchard needs to make a statement, and it has to happen then if he wants to keep up with the top three players on this list.