Harden, Pendergraph earn All-Pac-10 honors
ASU basketball players James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph have earned All-Pac-10 honors chosen by the league's coaches.
In a vote of the Pac-10 Coaches during their meetings last spring, the league expanded the All-Conference honors from one team of 10 players to three teams of five players each. Harden earned first-team honors, while Pendergraph earned third-team. Four freshman and four sophomores made up over half the 15-man squad.
Harden is joined on the first team by sophomore Ryan Anderson of California, sophomore Brook Lopez of Stanford, Pac-10 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year Kevin Love of UCLA and freshman O.J. Mayo of USC.
The freshman southpaw ranks fourth in the league in scoring (17.7 points per game), sixth in three-point percentage (.422), first in steals (2.03 per game), 10th in field goal percentage (.531) and ninth in minutes per game (33.7). His numbers in the Pac-10 games increased to 18.2 points per game (tied for fifth) and 2.06 steals per game (first) as he has posted 15 20-point games on the season, the most by a Sun Devil freshman, and set the school record for minutes played in the 18 league games (35.9 per game). His 61 steals set an ASU freshman record. He also earned All-Freshman honors along with Mayo, Love, Jerryd Bayless of Arizona and Davon Jefferson of USC.
Second-team honors went to freshman Jerryd Bayless of Arizona, junior Jon Brockman of Washington, junior Darren Collison of UCLA, senior Maarty Leunen of Oregon, and senior Kyle Weaver of Washington State.
Pendergraph, a junior, is averaging 12.5 points and 6.5 boards per game and is shooting 59.4 percent from the field (second in the league) and has 46 blocks on the year, third in the league. He is shooting 78 percent from the foul line.
He was joined on the third-team by sophomore Chase Budinger of Arizona, sophomore Taj Gibson of USC, senior Derrick Low of Washington State and sophomore Russell Westbrook of UCLA.
Sun Devil Ty Abbott also earned Pac-10 All-Freshman honorable mention honors.