Utah Utes forward/center Jakob Poeltl has been named Pac-12 Player of the Year by the conference. Poeltl, guard Brandon Taylor, and forward Jordan Loveridge all received honors.
SAN FRANCISCO—Utah forward/center Jakob Poeltl has been named the Pac-12 Player of the Year, the conference announced on Pac-12 Sports Report on Monday evening. Utes guard Brandon Taylor was also named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Poeltl becomes the first Utah player to earn Player of the Year since joining in the conference in 2011. He also becomes the first Ute player to be named a league’s Player of the Year honor since Luke Nevill was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year in 2009.
“I am obviously honored,” said Poeltl. “I have always said that individual awards are not really what I am [playing] for and I am more about the team. I hope that our team is playing well, but being named the Pac-12 Player of the Year is a great honor.”
Poeltl was also named to the All-Pac-12 First Team earlier today. This is the third consecutive year a Ute has been named to the First Team; former guard Delon Wright was named to the team in 2014 and 2015.
Taylor becomes the first player from Utah to earn Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete Player of the Year honors after boasting a cumulative 3.4 GPA throughout his four years on campus.
Taylor was also named to the conference All-Defensive Team and was an All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention, along with Utah senior forward Jordan Loveridge.
Poeltl led the conference with a .660 field goal shooting percentage, ranked second with 17.6 points per game and was third in the league with 9.1 rebounds per game. Taylor ranked ninth in the conference with 3.9 assists per game, while his 120 total assists were eighth-most in the league. His 1.5 steals per game average ranked fourth-best in the Pac-12.
#12 Utah, the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, will face the winner of No. 7 seed USC and No. 10 seed UCLA on Thursday night in Las Vegas at 7:15 p.m., MT.
