Pac-12 Basketball: Oregon's Payton Pritchard Named AP First-Team All-American

Third time in last four years a Pac-12 player named to AP's five-man squad

One player from the Pac-12 -- Oregon guard Payton Pritchard -- was named to the Associated Press first-team All-America team, which was announced on Friday.

Pritchard is only the third Pac-12/Pac-10 player in the past 11 years to receive Associated Press first-team All-America recognition. He joins Arizona's Deandre Ayton (2018) and UCLA's Lonzo Ball (2017) as Pac-12 representatives in that span. Ayton and Ball both were freshmen when they received All-America notice; Pritchard is a senior.

The other four members of the 2020 first-team All-America team are Dayton’s Obi Toppin, Iowa’s Luka Garza, Marquette’s Markus Howard and Seton Hall's Myles Powell.

The AP honors typically come out during the NCAA tournament, but with that event being canceled, the team was released now.

The AP All-America team is generally the most prestigious of the postseason honors, but Pritchard was also named to the All-America teams produced by NBC Sports and Sporting News. 

Pritchard averaged 20.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists this season, and his defining game came in the road victory over Arizona, when he collected 38 points, six rebounds and four assists while going 6-of-14 on three-point shots.

Pritchard was the difference in Cal's 77-72 loss to the Ducks in Berkeley this season. In the video below, Cal coach Mark Fox talked about Oregon and Pritchard, who had 21 points and eight asists against the Bears.

Oregon had first-team All-Americans on both the men's and women's sides, as two Ducks players -- Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard -- were named to the AP women's first-team All-America squad.