The countdown is on for our Pac-12 Friday miniseries on college basketball in the Conference of (real NCAA) Champions and its Midwest partners, the B1G. Overall, nine teams from the two conferences combined made the NCAA Tournament, with three reaching the Elite Eight, two reaching the Final Four, and one reaching the national title game. Alas, that team did not win the championship, but a great year!

1992 Pac-10 PoY: Harold Miner, G, USC (original); Tracy Murray, F, UCLA (revised)

The UCLA Bruins won the league by a single game over the USC Trojans, with the Arizona Wildcats finishing three games behind. USC guard Harold Miner won the PoY vote; his nickname was “Baby Jordan”—which seems absurd now, of course. He led the conference in scoring (26.3 ppg) while also finishing eighth in rebounding (7.0 rpg), which is actually pretty impressive for a guard.

But was he the true PoY? The Trojans had other players finish in the Top 10 for rebounding, assists, steals, and blocks, so it was a well-rounded roster. What about any other players? The Bruins had a very strong roster as well, with numerous players in various Top 10 statistical charts, as did the Wildcats. But the best player in our eyes was UCLA forward Tracy Murray, and there are multiples reasons why this is so.

Murray finished third in scoring (21.4 ppg), ninth in rebounding (7.0 rpg), fifth in steals (1.6 spg), and fifth in blocks (0.9 bpg). In addition to those counting stats, he also topped the conference in effective field-goal percentage and true shooting percentage: Murray was a classic case of quantity and quality. He was a well-rounded player and a highly efficient one, too. He wins our hardware here, hands down.

1992 B1G PoY: Jim Jackson, G, Ohio State (original, confirmed)

The Ohio State Buckeyes took home the title by one game over the Indiana Hoosiers, with both Michigan schools finishing four games behind overall. Ohio State G Jim Jackson won the PoY vote; he was first in scoring (22.4), eighth in rebounding (6.8), seventh in assists (4.0), and second in steals (1.7). That’s a very broad range of skills for the top team in the league. Is there anyone else to consider?

Not really, as only one other player on the Buckeyes roster appears in any of the Top 10 lists. The other three schools mentioned also have multiple players listed in the stat charts, but no single player did as much for his team as Jackson did, so we will confirm this vote.