Payton Pritchard Listed as One of the Best Players in the Nation

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has put together their list of who they consider could become the national player of the year by the end of the season and Payton Pritchard was chosen as a candidate. Payton is one of five PAC-12 players on the list, joining Zeke Nnaji (Arizona), Nick Rakocevic (USC), Tres Tinkle (Oregon State) and McKinley Wright IV (Colorado). Here are the other players who were listed:

G Ty-Shon Alexander, Creighton

G Cole Anthony, North Carolina

C Udoka Azubuike, Kansas

G Desmond Bane, TCU

C Charles Bassey, WKU

F Kerry Blackshear Jr., Florida

G Jared Butler, Baylor

G Anthony Cowan, Maryland

G Jarron Cumberland, Cincinnati

G Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy

F Mamadi Diakite, Virginia

G Devon Dotson, Kansas

F Anthony Edwards, Georgia

G Jordan Ford, Saint Mary’s

C Luka Garza, Iowa

G Jon Axel Gudmundsson, Davidson

F TJ Holyfield, Texas Tech

G Markus Howard, Marquette

G Jhivvan Jackson, UTSA

G Tre Jones, Duke

F/C Nathan Knight, William & Mary

F Anthony Lamb, Vermont

G Jermaine Marrow, Hampton

G Tyrese Maxey, Kentucky

G Skylar Mays, LSU

G Sam Merrill, Utah State

F John Mooney, Notre Dame

F Aaron Nesmith, Vanderbilt

F Jordan Nwora, Louisville

F Reggie Perry, Mississippi State

F Filip Petrusev, Gonzaga

G Myles Powell, Seton Hall

G Jordan Roland, Northeastern

F Marcus Santos-Silva, VCU

F Lamar Stevens, Penn State

C Jon Teske, Michigan

F Obi Toppin, Dayton

F Kaleb Wesson, Ohio State

G Cassius Winston, Michigan State

C James Wiseman, Memphis

C Omer Yurtseven, Georgetown

Pritchard has already been named to the the John R. Wooden preseason watch list and the Bob Cousy point guard of the year preseason watch list.

In January, the USBWA will release a second watch list. The finalists will be named after All-American voting is complete in March. The 2019-2020 Oscar Robertson Trophy will be presented at the NCAA Final Four in Atlanta in April.

*Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area... Follow him on Twitter @a_cravalho