Pac-10 basketball: Cal’s Jerome Randle wins player of the year honors

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California senior guard Jerome Randle has been named the Pacific 10 Conference’s player of the year by a vote of the league’s coaches, the league announced this morning.

Randle, who averaged 18.7 points per game for the Bears, was considered to be a front-runner along with Washington senior guard/forward Quincy Pondexter, who averaged 20.2 points and 7.8 rebounds this season. Randle undoubtedly got the nod because he helped lead the Bears to their first Pac-10 title in 50 years.

Arizona forward Derrick Williams, a one-time commit to USC, was named the Pac-10 freshman of the year after averaging 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds in his first year for the Wildcats.

Oregon State senior guard/forward Seth Tarver, who led the league with 2.3 steals per game, was named the Pac-10 defensive player of the year.

Arizona State Coach Herb Sendek was named the league’s coach of the year. His team finished the season with a 22-9 overall record, including a 12-6 mark in league play, despite having lost last year’s Pac-10 Player of the Year, James Harden.

USC sophomore forward Nikola Vucevic was named the Pac-10 most-improved player of the year. He went from averaging 2.6 points and 2.7 rebounds in the 2008-09 season to putting up 10.7 points and a league-leading 9.4 rebounds this season.

Vucevic was also named to the All-Pac-10’s second team. UCLA Bruins senior guard Michael Roll (13.5 points, 3.6 assists, 2.7 rebounds) was named to the All-Pac-10 first team, and Bruins forwards Tyler Honeycutt (7.3 points, 6.7 rebounds) and Reeves Nelson (11 points, 5.5 rebounds) were named to the Pac-10 all-freshman team.
-- Baxter Holmes