PacWest Weekly Awards (Jan. 24)
IRVINE, Calif. – Maintaining the defensive intensity that has garnered him two straight Pacific West Conference weekly honors, Academy of Art men's basketball junior guard
Klay Brown has extended his streak after he was named the PacWest Defender of the Week for the third consecutive week. The award is for games played from Jan. 17-23.
Brown averaged 4.0 steals and 3.0 defensive rebounds across two contests last week, starting with a trio of steals in
the finale of a three-game Hawaiian road trip against Chaminade. He ended the week with another five in the first meeting
of the season against Fresno Pacific, marking the third time this season he has recorded five steals. Already
the conference leader in steals with an average of 2.6 per game and 45 on the campaign, Brown ranks first in the PacWest in both categories while ranking 11th in the nation for steals per game while slotting in seventh for total steals. Brown
has tallied at least two steals in every game that he has recorded a swipe, including in each of the past eight games, while doing so in a total of 15 contests the season. His 45 total steals are not only the most in the conference but
third most in a single season in program history, just one steal behind Jase Harrison (46; 2015-16) for second place, while he is on pace for a total of 77 steals by year's end.
After having also earned the honor on
Jan. 10 and
Jan. 17, Brown is the only ART U men's basketball student-athlete to have earned the PacWest Defender of the Week award multiple times in a single season, and is the first player to collect three or more PacWest weekly honors in a single year since Jase Harrison was named the Freshman of the Week four times during the 2014-15 campaign. Brown joins teammates
Christian Popoola Jr. (
Nov. 15),
Joshua Bagley (
Dec. 6), and
Latrell Williams (
Dec. 13) in winning the PacWest Defender of the Week honor this season, setting a new ART U program record for number of players earning a weekly ward in single season (previous high: three, 2016-17 and 2014-15). It also further extends the new program record for PacWest Defender of the Week honors in a single season, topping the previous record of one which ART U had done each year starting with the 2013-14 campaign through 2017-18.
