Our nominees for Best Actor for the Arizona Wildcats this season are:
Gabe Encinas: T.J. McConnell by far. He controls the game and is relentless on defense. Sets everyone else up to make plays and can take over offensively himself. His stats don't nearly show how important he is to this team.
Lewis Krell: T.J. McConnell is a bigger lock here than JK Simmons and Julianne Moore combined. I hope T.J. has a monster game in a win against Utah and Delon Wright yet again struggles in a loss. If T.J. can get his averages up slightly with some big games over the next two weekends, and he can lead the Cats to a season sweep of Utah, he just might be able to get the Pac-12 Player of the Year Award I believe he richly deserves.
Zach Tennen: I'd have to give this a tie between Stanley Johnson and T.J. McConnell. McConnell has done an outstanding job being floor manager the last couple years. He never slacks a bit and almost always make the correct play. Not only that but he is a team first player. Stanley Johnson is Arizona's best two-way player. He's a defensive stopper on a nightly basis and uses his strength and improved shooting touch to make an impact on offense.
David Potts: My heart says T.J. McConnell, but my head says Stanley Johnson. I feel like the "T.J. McConnell is under-appreciated" pendulum has swung too far the other way and made people forget about how tremendously productive Stanley Johnson has been this year. He's the team's leading scorer and rebounder. He's currently fourth in Ken Pomeroy's player of the year race (behind only Frank Kaminsky, Delon Wright, and Seth Tuttle) and is actually the highest ranked freshman (sorry, Jahlil Okafor). And he has very quietly become one of the team's best shooters, ranking behind only York and Pitts in three point percentage. I don't think there is a wrong answer here between McConnell, Rondae, and Stanley, but I think it's Stanley.
Ben Leech: Another easy one, the favorite for Pac-12 Player of the Year in my eyes, T.J. McConnell.
Does McConnell get your vote too?