Douglas Named WCC Co-Player of the Week‏

Douglas Named WCC Co-Player of the Week

SAN BRUNO, Calif. --- Portland freshman point guard Tim Douglas and Saint Mary’s senior guard Mickey McConnell were named West Coast Conference Co-Players of the Week, the league announced on Monday. Douglas earned his second weekly award of the season to become just the fifth player in WCC history to receive multiple player of the week honors as a freshman. He led the Pilots to wins over San Diego and No. 24 Saint Mary’s by averaging 20.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists.

Douglas also earned WCC weekly honors on Dec. 20 after scoring a career-high 27 points against Portland State. The Cerritos, Calif. native joins some select company by earning multiple honors as a true freshman. The only other players in WCC history to do so are Elias Harris (Gonzaga, 2010), Patrick Mills (Saint Mary’s, 2008), Darrell Tucker (San Francisco, 2000) and Greg Anthony (Portland, 1987). The league records for WCC player of the week awards date back to the 1981-82 season. Mills is the only freshman to earn the honor three times in one season.

Douglas moved into the starting lineup for the first time this season on Thursday and helped the Pilots post convincing wins over San Diego (79-64) and No. 24 Saint Mary’s (85-70). He finished with 14 points and a season-high six assists on Thursday against the Toreros. He then erupted for 26 points, five rebounds and four assists to lead the upset of the Gaels. Against Saint Mary’s he drilled all four three-point attempts and was 10-for-16 from the field. For the week, Douglas shot 58 percent from the field, made 6-of-8 three-pointers and all six of his free throw attempts.

McConnell was just one point shy of his career-high with 27 points in Saint Mary's 73-71 win at Gonzaga - the program's first since 1995. He buried the game-winning basket with 1.3 seconds remaining to end the drought. McConnell followed that performance with a career-high 32 points at Portland two nights later.

Portland leads the league with five WCC Player of the Week selections by four different players. In addition to the two awards for Douglas, Luke Sikma, Jared Stohl and Nemanja Mitrovic have also been recognized this season.

Portland (16-6, 4-3 WCC) will host the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Chiles Center. The game is sold out, but will be nationally televised on ESPN2. Tickets for all remaining home games are still available through all Ticketmaster outlets or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

onetouchfutbol wrote: I'm not much of a fan of our own Greg Anthony since he left us and rumor has it wasn't much of a student (though I may be wrong).

Stonehouse wrote:
But, it's worth keeping in mind that Blue Ribbon - easily the best college basketball preview magazine - picked Douglas as the conference newcomer of the year, just as they successfully predicted TJ Campbell would be it.

"It's stuff you can't teach. And he was good from a body language stand point too. You can't tell if he missed his last eight, or hit five in a row. Temperment for a point guard is very important and that's what he has. You have to have a steady force as a point guard."