Pac-12 Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)
By Joey Loose
3. Payton Pritchard
There was a lot to like about Pritchard’s four-year tenure with Dana Altman at Oregon. This 6’2 point guard from West Linn, Oregon was a Top 50 recruit back in 2016 who chose to stay in his home state and would become a star at the national level. Success came early and often for both Oregon and Pritchard, and he’d have quite the career leading the Ducks.
While a freshman, he’d help take Oregon to their first Final Four in nearly eight decades. His numbers took a big step forward after that, as he’d average at least 12 points a game in the next two seasons. Pritchard also established himself as an efficient shooter and took Oregon to a Pac-12 Tournament title and Sweet Sixteen run as a junior. In his senior year, the season shortened by the pandemic, Pritchard averaged 20.5 points and 5.5 assists per game. He led the Ducks to another regular season title in the Pac-12 and had a 38-point outburst at Arizona in one of his final games.
Pritchard was plenty impactful early in his career, but that senior year certainly took the cake. Emerging as the Pac-12’s leader in points and assists, he was named Pac-12 Player of the Year and a First Team All-American while also winning the Bob Cousy Award. Let’s not forget that he helped guide the Ducks to a Final Four as a freshman and was Pac-12 Tournament MVP two years later. Clearly a successful point guard, he became a late first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.