NCAA Basketball: Gonzaga, Kansas among teams with 2022-23 NPOY favorites

8. Azuolas Tubelis – Arizona Wildcats

2022-23 stats: 19.9 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 2.1 apg

The presence and production of Oumar Ballo are going to hurt Tubelis in this race because he himself has played like an All-Pac-12 player this season. But whereas they were neck-and-neck around a month ago, Tulebis has started to separate himself from his frontcourt partner.

The 6’11 big man has been incredibly consistent, scoring 12+ points and grabbing 6+ rebounds in every game this season. That includes a recent 27 ppg and 12 rpg performance in a week against Oregon State and Washington State. And even when he’s not scoring a ton Tubelis is still having a major impact on games.

In the recent win against USC, the junior big man went for 15 points and 17 rebounds. And in the team’s 58-52 victory over UCLA this past weekend, Tubelis produced 14 points and 10 rebounds. In a game that featured little scoring overall, his numbers stood out as most important. And considering that Arizona came into the game three behind the Bruins in the Pac-12 standings, that was a must-win for them last weekend.

Tubelis and the Wildcats look for more success on the road, traveling to the Pacific Northwest to take on Washington and Washington State. The big man looks for a repeat of his past 29-point effort against the Cougars.