NCAA Basketball: Luka Garza new leader in National Player of the Year rankings

Stats: 19.4 ppg, 5.6 apg, 4.3 rpg

Even though Payton Pritchard rose one spot in our rankings this week, he is also at risk of being cut as a true contender to win the award.

Oregon is now 2-3 in the month of February with disappointing losses to Stanford, Oregon State, and Arizona State, all of which have come on the road. That is a concern to have about this Ducks team moving forward and, while that hurts Pritchard’s candidacy as well, his play has taken a slight step back during the stretch, too.

Last week, we touched on the shooting slump Pritchard was in. He broke out of that against Utah with 25 points on 61.5 percent shooting to lead Oregon to a blowout win, but he went back to struggling a bit against Arizona State. The senior fouled out and only dished out one assist on the night, yet before being disqualified, he did score 18 points and was leading an Oregon comeback virtually all by himself.

His ability to take over that game when nothing else was going right for the Ducks pushes him back above Howard for now but, again, he needs to get back to leading Oregon to some wins to stay in this race.

The Ducks only have one game left against an NCAA Tournament team, and that comes this weekend at Arizona. It will likely be Pritchard’s final chance to make a statement on a national stage – and both he and Oregon need to take advantage of it.