PacWest Weekly Awards (Nov. 21)
IRVINE, Calif. – The reigning
2021-22 Pacific West Conference Defender of the Year is back at it again, as Academy of Art men's basketball senior guard
Klay Brown has earned his first weekly award of the 2022-23 campaign when he was tabbed as the PacWest Defender of the Week after his average of 7.0 defensive rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game while helped ART U move to 4-0 for the first time in program history. The award is for games played from Nov. 14-20.
Brown continued his all-around work as the Urban Knights posted victories over
Cal State East Bay and
Chico State, with the triumph over the Wildcats the
first in eight tries in program history. While he did also contribute offensively (14.0 points and 6.0 assists per game), defensively was where he made the most presence by contesting shots, deflecting passes, and cleaning the glass. He collected two steals in both contests, which he has done in all four games this season, and pulled down eight rebounds for the third time in the win over Chico to go with two blocks.
While it is the first Defender of the Week award of the season for Brown, it is already the fourth of his career after he collected three last season (
Jan. 10,
Jan. 17,
Jan. 24) which is an ART U program record. He is now the second Urban Knight to earn the honor in multiple seasons since the current version of PacWest weekly awards began (2013-14), joining Alexis Moore who did so
once in 2013-14 before earning the award
once more in 2014-15.
In addition to Brown's award, Academy of Art was picked as the PacWest's unofficial Team of the Week, the first time that has happened in the campaign. It comes on the heels of another 2-0 week for Academy of Art, earning a pair of double-digit victories over two teams picked to finish in the top half of the California Collegiate Athletic Association in CSUEB and Chico. Both times ART U set their largest margin of victory, while they hit on 55.0 percent of their looks against the Wildcats to also set their season-best mark.
