Jason Gardner was selected the national freshman of the year in 2000. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
Jason Gardner will be the Arizona Wildcats’ inductee into the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Hall of Honor.
One player or coach is inducted every year from every team, and it’s amazing how Arizona is still going strong in the league’s 11th class.
Gardner, who started 135 of his 136 career games at point guard, averaged 15.6 points per game in his career and helped the Wildcats reach the 2001 national championship game. He is tied for 15th in conference history with 1,984 points and he is 10th with 622 assists.
The Pac-12 will hold the induction ceremony on March 16 before the conference tournament championship game in Las Vegas.
Others who will be headed to the Hall of Honor are:
Dennis Hamilton (Arizona State), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (California), Cliff Meely (Colorado), Chuck Rask (Oregon), Charlie Sitton (Oregon State), Ron Tomsic (Stanford), Lucius Allen (UCLA), Forrest Twogood (USC), Keith Van Horn (Utah), Nate Robinson (Washington) and James McKean (Washington State).
Arizona’s other inductees into the Hall of Honor are:
Sean Elliott (2002), Steve Kerr (2003), Khalid Reeves (2004), Pete Williams (2005), Damon Stoudamire (2006), Chris Mills (2007), Miles Simon (2008), Lute Olson (2009), Mike Bibby (2010) and Michael Dickerson (2011).
Just looking at players from the Pac-10 era, the Wildcats can still go with Derrick Williams, Channing Frye, Salim Stoudamire, Jason Terry, Gilbert Arenas, Andre Igoudala, Luke Walton, Brian Williams … well, you get the idea.
Here is the Gardner bio released by the Pac-12 in its press release:
Gardner was one of the most decorated basketball players in Arizona history. He was named the 2000 National Freshman of the Year and the 2003 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Player of the Year. Gardner earned All-America honors 12 times in his four-year career and finished as one of just four players in Pac-10 history to amass 1,500 career points, 500 assists and 200 steals. He was the highest-scoring guard in Arizona history and third highest overall with 1,984 career points. He led his teams to a 107-29 record, the 2001 National Championship game, two Pac-10 regular season championships and one Pac-10 Tournament title. During his senior year he guided the Wildcats to a 17-1 Pac-10 record. He played 4,825 minutes in his career, the second most in NCAA history. Gardner led the league in scoring in the 2001-02 season with 692 points. He became the first Arizona freshman to be named to the All-Pac-10 first team in 2000. Gardner recently finished a seven-year professional career in Europe spending most of his time in Germany. He is now in his second season as an assistant coach at Loyola University Chicago.
Jason Gardner cuts the net after Arizona won the 2002 Pac-10 tournament, 81-71 over USC. Photo by Harry How/Getty Images