ASU Men’s Basketball: Three Sun Devils Recognized for All-Pac-12 Honors

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

The Arizona State Sun Devils had three players named to the All-Pac-12 team as voted on by coaches in the conference, announced Monday by the Pac-12.

Senior forward Zylan Cheatham was one of 10 players voted to the All-Pac-12 first team, and freshman guard Luguentz Dort along with sophomore guard Remy Martin were two of five players voted to the All-Pac-12 second team.

“Congrats to Zylan, he’s had a tremendous year to get first team,” coach Bobby Hurley said, “and then Lu and Remy All-Pac-12, and Remy probably should’ve been in that first tier with Zylan.”

Martin ranked 15^th in the conference in scoring at 13.5 points per game, while also averaging 5.2 assists per game (2^nd), 1.3 steals per game (T-11^th) and tied for a conference-best 2.7 assist-to-turnover ratio.

He led first-team selection McKinley Wright IV, Colorado’s sophomore point guard, in all of these categories- some by a bigger margin than others- but was ostensibly unfazed by the perceived snub.

“I was a little surprised,” Martin said. “You know it’s a great conference, players are good in this conference, they’re very talented, but I guess I just got to do more next year.”

“It’s just kind of been the story of my life, I’ve always got overlooked…I know other people are a little bit more frustrated than me, but it’s ok, I mean my game shows for itself and as long as our team is winning then I don’t care.”

One of those people was his head coach, as Hurley reiterated his sentiment when asked specifically about Martin later in the session.

“I don’t want to take anything away from any of the other players that made first team and there’s certainly some real talent in our conference,” Hurley said, “but Remy- on a team that was second place- he was a big part of it and played well in so many big games, so he’s probably deserving to be on the first team, but stuff like that doesn’t affect him, he just wants to play and he wants to win and he doesn’t really care.”

All possible snubs aside, the last time three Sun Devils made the all-conference team was 20 years ago, when Eddie House, Bobby Lazor and Mike Batiste were three of the 10 players who earned a spot on the 1999 All-Pac-10 team.

“People like to sweep these types of accomplishments under the rug because we train ourselves to be so competitive and pretty much want to look past it or expect more from yourself,” Cheatham said. “But in this instance, I’m really appreciative of it, and it just kind of shows the impact I’ve had on this team and the blessings I’ve been able to accomplish.”

“When the season started I don’t think I was expecting this,” Dort said. “At first I was just trying to come here and have an impact and everything, and then when I saw that this morning I was just happy and grateful.”

Cheatham leads the Pac-12 with 10.4 rebounds per contest and adds 11.6 points per game (27^th) on 53.2 percent shooting from the field (10^th), as well as 3.3 assists per game (T-13^th) and 0.8 blocks per game (T-12^th).

Dort averages 16.2 points per game (9^th) plus 4.3 rebounds (T-31^st) and 1.6 steals (T-5^th).

In addition to the all-conference honors, both Cheatham and Dort were amongst the five players named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive team. They became the third and fourth Sun Devils to earn the recognition since that all-conference team was created in the 2007-08 season.

“The two guys on the All-Defensive team, I take a lot of pride in that, I don’t think we were ever in contention for those type of awards in the past,” Hurley said. “Those are great things; the guys are very focused. I think they know what it’s about, we’re playing with confidence right now, there’s a lot of hope on what we can accomplish this week and beyond.”

The last Sun Devil named to the All-Defensive team was Jordan Bachynski in 2014. Hurley began coaching ASU in 2015.

However, perhaps the most interesting note from award day pertains to Dort. The Canadian guard was the only freshman of the 15 players on the All-Pac-12 team or of the five on the All-Defensive team.

Therefore, it comes as little surprise that he was named to the All-Freshman team and in fact took home the Pac-12 freshman of the year honor, quite possibly the most notable recognition for any Sun Devil this season.

“I didn’t expect to be the only freshman,” Dort said. “I felt like some other freshmen proved themselves this year to be on the second team, but I was just happy and really proud of myself.”

Dort becomes the fifth player in program history to earn that distinction, the first since Jahii Carson in 2013. Ironically, Carson was the last recipient of the award to return for his sophomore season.

But for now, ASU turns its focus to Thursday at 6 p.m., when it will host the winner of Wednesday’s Stanford vs. UCLA matchup in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals.