Arizona’s Elliott, UNLV’s Augmon Win Honors

Sean Elliott of Arizona was named the Pacific 10 Conference player of the year, and Stacey Augmon of Nevada Las Vegas was honored likewise in the Big West Thursday, the same day finalists for the Wooden Award were announced.

Penny Toler of Cal State Long Beach and Chana Perry of San Diego State were named co-players of the year among Big West women.

It marked the second straight year that Elliott had been picked as the Pac-10’s top player and the third time he has made the all-conference team. Todd Lichti of Stanford became only the third four-time honoree in conference history, joining Bob McKeen of Cal and Ron Lee of Oregon, while UCLA’s Pooh Richardson was named for the third time.

The rest of the 10-player Pac-10 team consisted of Anthony Cook of Arizona, Trent Edwards of Arizona State, Gary Payton of Oregon State, Eldridge Recasner of Washington, Leonard Taylor of Cal, Trevor Wilson of UCLA and Howard Wright of Stanford.

Lute Olson of Arizona and Ralph Miller of Oregon State were named co-coaches of the year, and UCLA’s Don MacLean was honored as the top freshman. Bruin teammate Darrick Martin also made the all-freshman team.

Joining Augmon on the six-member Big West team were David Butler of UNLV, Cedric Ceballos of Cal State Fullerton, Jervis Cole of Fresno State, Reid Newey of Utah State and Johnny Roberson of New Mexico State. Utah State’s Kendall Youngblood was picked as freshman of the year, while Neil McCarthy of New Mexico State was named coach of the year.

The finalists for the Wooden Award: Sherman Douglas of Syracuse, Jay Edwards of Indiana, Elliott, Danny Ferry of Duke, Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount, Tom Hammonds of Georgia Tech, Stacey King of Oklahoma, Lichti, George McCloud of Florida State, Glen Rice of Michigan, Lionel Simmons of La Salle and Charles Smith of Georgetown. The winner will be announced April 5.