TUCSON, Ariz. – The Pac-12 Conference announced its annual award winners for the 2022-23 season on Tuesday, with a number of Arizona Wildcats earning accolades for their performance during the regular season.
 
Junior forward Azuolas Tubelis was the probable runner-up to UCLA's Jaime Jaquez Jr. for Player of the Year and UA junior center Oumar Ballo earned Most Improved Player of the Year honors. It is the second straight season that an Arizona player has been named Most Improved after Christian Koloko took home the honors last season.
 
Both Tubelis and Ballo landed on the All Pac-12 First Team while Courtney Ramey received honorable mention. It marks the second straight season that Arizona has had multiple players on the All Pac-12 First Team.
 
Ballo was honorable mention for the Pac-12 All-Defensive team and freshman guard was an honorable mention on the All-Freshman team.
 
Tubelis currently leads the Pac-12 in scoring (19.9) and rebounding (9.2) as he looks to finish the season as the seventh player in conference history pull that off. He would be the first since Leon Powe (CAL) in 2005-06. He has 13 double-doubles on the year and has made 243 field goals this season, tied for 11th most in the country and seventh-most in Arizona basketball history. His 1,432 career points rank 20th all-time at Arizona and he needs just 14 more points to pass Steve Kerr for 19th place.
 
Ballo increased his offensive production from 6.8 points last year to 13.9 points this season while racking up 10 double-doubles. He ranks 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring and third in rebounding while shootin 64.5% from the floor, a percentage that is the second-best all-time in Arizona history. He also leads the conference in free throw attempts.
 
Ramey has been one of the top 3-point shooters in the conference this season, connecting at a 40.5% clip to rank fourth in that category while leading the league in 3-pointers made per game (2.68). The grad transfer has also racked up 100 assists on the year and is third in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
Boswell has come on strong down the stretch and was recently named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week after scoring 14 points at USC and 14 points at UCLA to close the regular season. He shot 75% overall from the floor that week and 67% from the 3-point line. For the season, he has 50 assists to just 24 turnovers.
 
Arizona is the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and will take on the winner of Utah and Stanford on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. MT on Pac-12 Network. The Wildcats are the defending Pac-12 Tournament champions after defeating Stanford, Colorado and UCLA last year at T-Mobile Arena.
 
Below is a complete listing of all the award winners for the 2022-23 season:
 
PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Jaime Jaquez Jr., Sr., G/F, UCLA

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Jaylen Clark, Jr., G, UCLA

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Adem Bona, F, UCLA

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Oumar Ballo, R-Jr., C, ARIZONA

SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR, PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA
Reese Dixon-Waters, So., G, USC

JOHN R. WOODEN COACH OF THE YEAR
Mick Cronin, UCLA
 
ALL-PAC-12 TEAM

FIRST TEAM
Oumar Ballo, Arizona, C, R-Jr., Koulikoro, Mali
Tyger Campbell***, UCLA, G, R-Jr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Branden Carlson, Utah, C, Sr., South Jordan, Utah
N'Faly Dante, Oregon, C, Sr., Bamako, Mali
Tristan da Silva, Colorado, F, Jr., Munich, Germany
Boogie Ellis, USC, G, Sr., San Diego, Calif.
Mouhamed Gueye, Washington State, F, So., Dakar, Senegal
Jaime Jaquez Jr.**, UCLA, G/F, Sr., Camarillo, Calif.
Drew Peterson**, USC, G, 5th, Libertyville, Ill.
Ažuolas Tubelis**, Arizona, F, Jr., Vilnius, Lithuania

SECOND TEAM
Keion Brooks Jr., Washington, F, Sr., Fort Wayne, Ind.
Desmond Cambridge Jr., Arizona State, G, 5th, Nashville, Tenn.
Jaylen Clark, UCLA, G, Jr., Riverside, Calif.
Spencer Jones, Stanford, F, Sr., Roeland Park, Kan.
KJ Simpson, Colorado, G, So., West Hills, Calif.

HONORABLE MENTION (receiving at least three votes): TJ Bamba, WSU; Adem Bona, UCLA; Courtney Ramey, ARIZ; Will Richardson, ORE.

* denotes number of All-Pac-12 First Team honors

PAC-12 ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Amari Bailey, UCLA, G, Chicago, Ill.
Adem Bona, UCLA, F, Ebonyi, Nigeria
Keyon Menifield, Washington, G, Flint, Mich.
Jordan Pope, Oregon State, G, Oakley, Calif.
Tre White, USC, G, Dallas, Texas

HONORABLE MENTION (receiving at least three votes): Kylan Boswell, ARIZ; Grant Newell, CAL.

PAC-12 ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Adem Bona, UCLA, F, Fr., Ebonyi, Nigeria
Jaylen Clark**, UCLA, G, Jr., Riverside, Calif.
Kobe Johnson, USC, G, So., Milwaukee, Wisc.
Braxton MeahWashington, C, Jr., Fresno, Calif.
Joshua Morgan, USC, F, R-Jr., Sacramento, Calif.

HONORABLE MENTION (receiving at least three votes): Marco Anthony, UTAH; Oumar Ballo, ARIZ; Mouhamed Gueye, WSU; Warren Washington, ASU.

* denotes number of All-Defensive Team honors