Young, Nelson earn second-team honors

Published 5:00 pm Monday, March 10, 2014

There will be no first-team all-Pac-12 players on the court when Oregon and Oregon State meet in the first round of the conference tournament Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

The 10-man all-star team voted on by conference coaches that was announced Monday did not include any Ducks or Beavers, which the coaches of both those teams attributed to being in the bottom half of the standings for most of the year.

Oregon State’s Roberto Nelson led the conference in scoring at 20.6 points per game but was a second-team selection after the Beavers finished 10th in the conference at 8-10.

“I thought Roberto had a chance to be first team and when he was second team, I was a little disappointed, but I am sure he is going to be fine with it and move on,” Oregon State coach Craig Robinson said. “Those awards tend to be like beauty pageants; you have to be on the winning side more than the losing side to rank higher and I understand that.”

Oregon State’s Eric Moreland was an honorable mention selection on the all-defensive team, and Hallice Cooke earned honorable mention to the all-freshman team.

Oregon junior Joseph Young, who is fifth in the Pac-12 with 18.2 points per game and leads the conference in free-throw percentage at 89.2, was also a second-team selection.

“It’s a team game,” Young said when asked about the voting.

Senior Mike Moser earned honorable-mention all-conference honors after Oregon finished tied for third in the conference at 10-8.

“I always tell the guys, the spoils kind of go to the winner,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We didn’t win enough.

“I thought some of our guys were more deserving … but again, if you don’t finish 1-2-3 in the league, I guess we were tied for third, but we caught up at the end and I’m sure some ballots were in before then.

“Mike, Joe, Jason (Calliste), Johnny (Loyd) were all deserving of something. I thought Johnny should have been on the all-defensive team. With his steals and I am not sure there is anybody on the ball better than Johnny, so I was a little disappointed for that, but other than that, I don’t look at that stuff much.”

Moser was named Pac-12 player of the week for the second consecutive week after he totaled 32 points and 27 rebounds in wins over Arizona State and Arizona last week.

He is the first Oregon player to earn the honor in consecutive weeks. The Ducks’ last back-to-back winners were Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson in the 2002-03 season.

“It is really cool, a big honor especially considering all the great players that have come through here,” Moser said.

During the last two weeks, Moser became the first Duck to have four consecutive double-doubles since Maarty Leunen in 2006-07. He averaged 16 points and 14.8 rebounds in those four games with 11 assists and seven steals.

During Oregon’s seven game-winning streak, Moser is averaging 17.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals, and shooting 43-for-88 from the floor, including 16-for-32 on three-pointers and 18-for-23 at the line.

“I am definitely a little fresher,” said Moser, who scored in single digits during five of seven games before Oregon’s winning streak. “I think it is kind of the mentality that all this could be over any minute now. I continue to play with that sense of desperation.”

Loyd said Moser “looks a little younger to me”.

Moser replied, “Maybe I am.”

“Mike has had a bounce in his step,” Altman said. “A lot of that is when you are playing good, you’ve got energy.”

Moser will return to Las Vegas this week after playing the last two seasons at UNLV before transferring to Oregon for his final year.

“I am excited to go back to Vegas,” he said. “It has been a good place to play for me so I hope I can spread that to my teammates as well.”

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