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 Player of the Week — Deivon Smith, Utah

My choice for Player of the Week came down to Utah’s Deivon Smith and Arizona’s Pelle Larsson. I decided to go with Smith due to his assists.

Smith averaged 8.5 assists per game against the Oregon schools while scoring a career-high 24 points against the Ducks.

The victory over UO was just the second of the Pac-12 era for the Utes and they could not have got it done without the senior guard.

Overall, he averaged 19.0 ppg while shooting 15-for-28 (53.6 percent) from the field.

Arizona’s Larsson was the primary reason the Wildcats beat UCLA, yet he averaged fewer points than Smith and only had seven assists across the two games.

There were a handful of other players that had stronger numbers than my finalists. But most of them lost a game and the award should normally go to a player on a team that went 2-0.

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Freshman Player of the Week — Cody Williams, Colorado

This week’s vote was a straightforward process of elimination. Absent special circumstances, I don’t give my vote to a player on a team that lost.

That eliminated Washington State’s Myles Rice, Stanford’s Kanaan Carlyle, and UCLA’s Sabastian Mack.

I still considered Rice and Carlyle due to the prolific numbers they put up, but Colorado’s Cody Williams averaged 19.5 ppg while shooting 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) from the field. And more importantly, his team didn’t lose.

The Buffs beat the Oregon schools in part due to a career-high scoring night from Williams against UO followed by a 16-point game against OSU.

The only other nominated player from a team that won both of its games was Arizona’s KJ Lewis. But he didn’t match the production of Williams.