SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Washington State University men's basketball junior forward Robert Franks has been named the 2018 Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year, it was announced on the Pac-12 Network's Sports Report, Monday evening.

Franks becomes the third Cougar to pick up the award and the second under fourth-year head coach Ernie Kent, joining Brock Motum (2012) and Josh Hawkinson (2015). Earlier in the day, the Pac-12 announced the all-conference teams, as Franks was named Honorable Mention. 

A native of Vancouver, Wash., Franks leads the Cougars and ranks seventh in the Pac-12 (142nd in the nation) with 17.4 points per game, adding a team second-best and Pac-12 15th-best, 6.7 rebounds per game. Franks is also shooting .473 from the field and .403 from 3-point range.  He's fifth in the conference with a .851 free throw percentage.

Last year as a sophomore Franks averaged 6.3 points and had 3.3 rebounds per game in 16.4 minutes per game in 31 games. As a freshman in 2015-16 Franks appeared in 23 games, averaging 8.3 minutes per outing. He scored a total of 50 points and averaged 2.2 points and 1.3 rebounds a game. With 505 points, he has already doubled his point total from his first two seasons (245), With 64 3-pointers in 29 games this year, Franks has more than doubled his number of 3-pointers made from the 54 games his first two seasons, 25.

The Cougars continue their season as they enter the 2018 Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 11 seed and take on No. 6 Oregon, Wednesday, March 7 at  8:30 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena.