National DPOY candidate Thybulle earns Pac-12 Men's Basketball weekly award

Pac-12 Men's Basketball Player of the Week (2/25/19) - Matisse Thybulle, Sr., G, WASHINGTON

SAN FRANCISCO - Washington senior guard Matisse Thybulle, a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy Defensive Player of the Year, earns the first Pac-12 Player of the Week award of his career as voted on by media who cover the league.

• Thybulle averaged 13.5 points (11-22 FG, 4-7 3FG), 6.0 steals, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 blocks as Washington allowed just 50.0 points in home victories over Utah (62-45) and Colorado (64-55) last week to clinch at least a share of the Pac-12 regular-season title.

• The senior guard from Issaquah, Wash., recorded six steals in each game to climb into second on the Pac-12 career steals list with 301, just 20 shy of Gary Payton's career mark of 321. He now has 96 steals this season, the fourth highest single-season total in league history and just 14 shy of Jason Kidd's record of 110 in 1993.

• Thybulle leads NCAA Division I with 3.56 steals per game and ranks 20th with 2.30 blocks per contest - the only player in the country to rank inside the top 50 in both categories.

• With 96 steals and 62 blocked shots, Thybulle joins Zakee Wadood (ETSU, 2003 & 2004) as the only NCAA Division I players since 1992-93 to post 90 steals and 60 blocks in a season according to College Basketball Reference. He also joins Wadood as the only D-I players to register multiple 90-steal/40-block seasons in the past 26 seasons, and is the only D-I player over that span with 300 steals and 150 blocks in a career.

• Washington (22-5, 13-1), which returned to the AP Top 25 at No. 25 on Monday, can secure the outright crown and No. 1 seed for the Pac-12 Tournament with a win in any of its final four league games. The Huskies travel to the Bay Area to face California on Thursday (8 p.m. PT, FS1) and Stanford on Sunday (1 p.m. PT, ESPN2).

ALSO NOMINATED: Chase Jeter, ARIZONA; Rob Edwards, ARIZONA STATE; Tyler Bey, COLORADO; Tres Tinkle, OREGON STATE; Jaylen Hands, UCLA; Robert Franks, WASHINGTON STATE.

2018-19 PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK