Seniors Brooks, Stelly Honored at UO?s Team Banquet
EUGENE, Ore. ? Senior guard Aaron Brooks was named the University of Oregon’s most valuable player, as well as the Rear Admiral John Dick defensive player of the year, at the men’s basketball team’s annual banquet held Sunday at the Valley River Inn.
Brooks, from Seattle, Wash., leads the Pac-10 in scoring at 18.0 points per game and leads the team in assists at 4.4 per game. He ranks 11th in UO career scoring with 1,394 points and also ranks in the Ducks’ top 10 in assists (4th/446), steals (6th/119), three-pointers (6th/189) and free throw percentage (4th/.836). Brooks was also the team’s MVP as a sophomore in 2005.
Senior Adrian Stelly was named the John Warren most inspirational player for the second straight year. The walk-on from Portland, Ore., has appeared in seven games in 2006-07 and made the first start of his career in Saturday’s win against Oregon State.
Junior Bryce Taylor was named Jesse Nash most improved player. The Encino, Calif., native is Oregon’s second leading scorer at 14.6 points per game and is third in rebounding at 4.7 per game. That is a stark contrast to last season where he averaged 9.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per game and missed the last 10 contests due to a hyperextended right knee.
Junior Maarty Leunen earned the Harry Ritchie scholar-athlete award. Leunen, from Redmond, Ore., is majoring in economics and leads Oregon in rebounds (8.6 per game) and steals with 44, in addition to scoring 11.0 points per game.
No. 17 Oregon, 23-7 overall and 11-7 in the Pac-10, finished tied for third in the Pac-10 with Arizona and USC. It is just the fourth time since the league expanded to 10 teams prior to the 1978-79 season that the Ducks have finished third or better. Three of those occasions have come under Ernie Kent -- 2000 (3rd), 2002 (1st) and now this season. Oregon was also third in 1984.
The Ducks, seeded fourth, will play fifth-seeded Arizona Thursday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in a Pac-10 tournament quarterfinal game.
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