This is the finale for this Pac-12 Friday miniseries on college basketball in the Conference of (real NCAA) Champions and its Midwest partners, the B1G. We will be taking a break on this column for a bit, with sporadic entries as we see fit during football season in Fall 2023. In the meantime, enjoy this last entry here for the year when March Madness truly became maddening on the national level. Hope you’ve had fun!

1985 Pac-10 PoY: Wayne Carlander, F, USC (original); Detlef Schrempf, F, Washington (revised)

USC and Washington tied atop the standings for the league title—one game ahead of Arizona, Oregon State, and UCLA. That’s a logjam, folks! Yet only four teams from the conference made it to the NCAA Tournament (the Bruins were not invited but won the NIT in the school’s first-ever appearance in that event). Trojans forward Wayne Carlander won the league PoY vote (16.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.5 apg).

But we also like Huskies F Detlef Schrempf (15.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 4.2 apg) and Beavers F A.C. Green (19.1 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.0 apg). Both these players were more valuable to their teams than Carlander was in our eyes; for example, Schrempf led Washington in all three of those statistical categories. Without him, the Huskies do not win the conference, period. So, he’s going to be our pick here for the PoY. Makes common sense, after all.

1985 B1G PoY: Roy Tarpley, F, Michigan (original, confirmed)

With the Michigan Wolverines winning the league title by 4 games, and their star player—F Roy Tarpley—winning the PoY vote, it’s easy to confirm it without much analysis. He was the best player (19.0 ppg, 10.4 rpg) on the best team in the conference. When your school wins the conference championship by such a wide margin, this ends up being a no-brainer decision for us.