I went with Oregon State’s Michael Rataj as the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.

— Dane Miller (@DaneMiller_SWS) January 16, 2023

I voted for Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge Jr. as the Pac-12 Player of the Week.

— Dane Miller (@DaneMiller_SWS) January 16, 2023

 Player of the Week — Desmond Cambridge Jr. , Arizona State

My vote for Player of the Week came down to Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge Jr. and Washington’s Keion Brooks Jr. I went with Cambridge due to the higher quality of opponents and the fact that the Sun Devils went on the road.

The Huskies faced the Bay Area schools in Seattle, while ASU swept the Oregon schools on the road for the first time since 2010.

Cambridge averaged 21.0 points per game on 53 percent shooting. He also went 7-for-15 from three.

Freshman Player of the Week — Michael Rataj, Oregon State

As a general rule of thumb, I don’t vote for players on a team that lost its games during the week. But I made an exception for Michael Rataj.

The Oregon State freshman averaged 17.5 points per game and shot 64.3 percent from the field in OSU’s two contests against the Arizona schools. He also averaged 2.5 steals per game against the Wildcats and Sun Devils.

I considered Cal’s Grant Newell and Washington’s Koren Johnson, but gave the nod to Rataj for carrying the Beavers last week.