Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard, Graham Ike named NABC All-District

Ike earned first team honors for second consecutive season

Gonzaga senior guard Ryan Nembhard was named to the NABC first team All-Pacific district team / Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

The National Association of Basketball Coaches released its first team All-Pacific district earlier this week, and Gonzaga's Ryan Nembhard and Graham Ike were two of the 10 players tabbed to the prestigious honor.

It's the second season in a row that Ike was tabbed to the first team, which was voted on by NABC-member coaches in Division-I basketball. The NABC switched up its district alignment for this season's awards, as schools are arranged by state rather than by conference. Basically, every Division-I school in each state belongs to that state's corresponding district.

Two other players from the West Coast Conference made the first team All-Pacific district, while two more were tabbed to the second team. Saint Mary's guard and two-time reigning WCC Player of the Year, Augustas Marciulionis, and San Francisco guard Malik Thomas, the league's leading scorer, made the first team. Oregon State's Michael Rataj and the WCC Newcomer of the Year, Paulius Murauskas from Saint Mary's, were on the second team.

Murauskas, a transfer from Arizona, leads the WCC with 8.0 rebounds per game. His 13 double-doubles is tied for No. 23 in the country. Rataj, who just wrapped up his third season with the Beavers, recorded 10 double-doubles and was named to the All-WCC first team as well. He scored 29 points in an overtime win against the Zags on Jan. 16.

San Diego State guard Miles Byrd and UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau were also featured on the first team All-Pacific District. Byrd played 22 minutes while dealing with an injury during the Aztecs' loss to the Bulldogs on Nov. 18. He averaged 12.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 30 appearances this season.

Ike leads Gonzaga in scoring at 17.1 points per game while shooting a WCC-best 59.6% from the field. As one of the most effective post-up players at drawing fouls, Ike is 126-for-158 (79.7%) from the free-throw line this season. When also accounting for his slightly-above-average 3-point field goal percentage (36.7% on less than 1.0 attempt per game), Ike has a 61.1% effective field goal percentage, which ranks No. 1 in the WCC.

Nembhard leads the nation with 325 assists. The senior guard broke the conference's single season assist record, Gonzaga's single season record and matched the league's and program's single game assist records. His 863 career assists are the most by an active player.

Pacific District

First Team
Tyler Bilodeau, UCLA
Miles Byrd, San Diego State
Graham Ike, Gonzaga
Bent Leuchten, UC Irvine
Augustas Marciulionis, Saint Mary's
Ryan Nembhard, Gonzaga
Great Osobor, Washington
Maxime Raynaud, Stanford
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, UC San Diego
Malik Thomas, San Francisco

Second Team
Nate Bittle, Oregon
Desmond Claude, USC
Dominique Daniels Jr., Cal Baptist
Barrington Hargress, UC Riverside
Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, Seattle
Paulius Murauskas, Saint Mary's
Michael Rataj, Oregon State
Jackson Shelstad, Oregon
Andrej Stojakovic, Cal
Devin Tillis, UC Irvine

Coach of the Year: Eric Olen, UC San Diego