Quote:DENVER – The 2018 All-WAC teams have been named, following a vote of the WAC’s eight head coaches. NM State’s Jemerrio Jones headlines the awards, earning WAC Player of the Year honors, while Grand Canyon’s Alessandro Lever was named WAC Freshman of the Year and NM State’s Chris Jans earned Don Haskins WAC Coach of the Year honors.

Jones was named WAC Player of the Year after averaging 11.3 points at a 54.5 percent clip, 14.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.1 steals per game in WAC play. Not only did he average 3.5 more rebounds than the next closest player in conference play, but his 14.14 rebounds per game is the fifth-highest average in WAC history. In his 14 WAC games, he posted eight double-doubles and had four games with 20 or more rebounds, including three in a row. In addition, his 198 boards in WAC games is tied for the 10th-most in conference history. He was named WAC Player of the Week three times.

Lever earned WAC Freshman of the Year honors after scoring in double figures in eight of 14 WAC games with a season-high 30 points. In conference games only, he ranked eighth in the WAC in rebounding (5.4), ninth in free throw percentage (80.2) and 10th in field goal percentage (48.6). He was named WAC Player of the Week one time during the season.

In his first year at the helm, Jans was named WAC Coach of the Year after leading the Aggies to their third WAC regular-season title in the last four years. NM State is currently 25-5 overall and went 12-2 in WAC play. The Aggies defeated a Top 10 team this season for the first time since 1990.

Four different schools are represented on the first team. Joining Jones and Lever are UT Rio Grande Valley’s Nick Dixon, NM State’s Zach Lofton and Utah Valley’s Kenneth Ogbe.

The All-WAC second teamers are Joshua Braun of Grand Canyon, Matej Kavas and Aaron Menzies of Seattle U, and Utah Valley’s Brandon Randolph and Conner Toolson.

The All-Defensive Team is made up of Jones, Menzies, CSU Bakersfield’s Moataz Aly, Grand Canyon’s Oscar Frayer, and Utah Valley’s Akolda Manyang.

The All-Newcomer Team consists of Lever, Lofton, NM State’s AJ Harris, Seattle U’s Jordan Hill and Utah Valley’s Jake Toolson.

The complete WAC teams and additional honors follow.

First Team All-WAC
Nick Dixon$% UT Rio Grande Valley R-Sr. G 6-2 Hillside, Ill. (Morton College)
Jemerrio Jones% NM State Sr. F 6-5 Memphis, Tenn. (Hill Junior College)
Alessandro Lever Grand Canyon Fr. C 6-10 Bolzano, Italy (Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia)
Zach Lofton NM State Gr. G 6-4 St. Paul, Minn. (Texas Southern)
Kenneth Ogbe Utah Valley Gr. G 6-6 Munich, Germany (Utah)

Second Team All-WAC
Joshua Braun#@& Grand Canyon R-Sr. G 6-4 Anthem, Ariz. (Westwind Prep Academy)
Matej Kavas^% Seattle U R-So. G 6-8 Ljubljana, Slovenia (Gimnazija Bezigrad)
Aaron Menzies Seattle U R-Jr. C 7-3 Manchester, England (Loreto Academy)
Brandon Randolph Utah Valley R-Sr. G 6-2 Inglewood, Calif. (Xavier)
Conner Toolson Utah Valley Jr. G 6-4 Highland, Utah (Salt Lake CC)

All-Defensive Team
Moataz Aly!% CSU Bakersfield Sr. C 6-10 Alexandria, Egypt (Hutchinson CC)
Oscar Frayer Grand Canyon So. F 6-7 Oakland, Calif. (Moreau Catholic)
Jemerrio Jones% NM State Sr. F 6-5 Memphis, Tenn. (Hill Junior College)
Akolda Manyang Utah Valley R-Sr. C 7-1 Rochester, Minn. (Oklahoma)
Aaron Menzies Seattle U R-Jr. C 7-3 Manchester, England (Loreto Academy)

All-Newcomer Team
AJ Harris NM State R-So. G 5-9 Dayton, Ohio (Ohio State)
Jordan Hill Seattle U Gr. G 6-4 Pasadena, Calif. (Wisconsin)
Alessandro Lever Grand Canyon Fr. C 6-10 Bolzano, Italy (Grissin Bon Reggio Emilia)
Zach Lofton NM State Gr. G 6-4 St. Paul, Minn. (Texas Southern)
Jake Toolson Utah Valley R-So. G 6-5 Gilbert, Ariz. (Brigham Young)

Player of the Year: Jemerrio Jones, NM State
Freshman of the Year: Alessandro Lever, Grand Canyon
Don Haskins Coach of the Year: Chris Jans, NM State


# – 2017 First Team All-WAC selection
$ – 2017 Second Team All-WAC selection
% – 2017 All-Newcomer Team selection
! – 2017 All-Defensive Team selection
^ – 2017 WAC Freshman of the Year
@ – 2016 First Team All-WAC selection
& – 2015 All-Newcomer Team selection

http://wacsports.com/news/2018/3/6/wac-m...unced.aspx

Congrats to all!

Interesting. It looks like all the awards were dominated by the top four WAC schools. Only Nick Dixon and Moataz Aly managed to crack into the WAC honors from outside the top four. It also looks like GCU and Seattle U are in good shape for 2018-19. The only player returning from the 2017-18 WAC 1st team is WAC FOY Alessandro Lever. They also return Oscar Frayer from the All-Defensive team. Seattle U returns both their WAC 2nd team selection in Aaron Menzies and Mataj Kavas. Menzies is also on the All-Defensive team.

I said this on this in a more pronounced way on the Aggie board:

Braun doesn't deserve to be on any of these lists. He had a bad year and an even worse WAC season. He had a 1 point game and a 0 point game in WAC play. He also had 6 games with single digit scoring. This is a nostalgic pick and I don't like it. Fred Sims deserved the pick over Braun.

(03-06-2018 06:55 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  I said this on this in a more pronounced way on the Aggie board:

Braun doesn't deserve to be on any of these lists. He had a bad year and an even worse WAC season. He had a 1 point game and a 0 point game in WAC play. He also had 6 games with single digit scoring. This is a nostalgic pick and I don't like it. Fred Sims deserved the pick over Braun.

I can't disagree with you. Love the kid, JB, but the basketball player was dismal. He shouldn't be on any ones list of anything basketball related.

(03-06-2018 07:14 PM)LopesUp Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 06:55 PM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  I said this on this in a more pronounced way on the Aggie board:

Braun doesn't deserve to be on any of these lists. He had a bad year and an even worse WAC season. He had a 1 point game and a 0 point game in WAC play. He also had 6 games with single digit scoring. This is a nostalgic pick and I don't like it. Fred Sims deserved the pick over Braun.

I can't disagree with you. Love the kid, JB, but the basketball player was dismal. He shouldn't be on any ones list of anything basketball related.

I agree with both assessments here. JB's selection likely had more to do with his performance from previous years than anything he did this year. Perhaps the WAC coaches were feeling nostalgic.
As for Fred Sims replacing him though, I have to respectfully disagree. His FG% was a dismal .337 in conference (even JB beat that at .357). The only reason he averaged over 14 ppg is because he takes about 30+ shots a game. He also does not do much else on the court. Even with JB's terrible year he was still better than Sims.

I wonder how close it was between Jones and Lofton?

Braun kind of received a lifetime achievement award by being placed on the 2nd team. He broke more than a few GCU records in his time there. Although there are already two Seattle U. players on the 2nd team, there probably should have been a third with Jordan Hill. He is the straw that stirs the Redhawk's drink. Braun is still a good player but I'm not sure he is one of the top 10 in the WAC.

(03-06-2018 08:06 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  Braun kind of received a lifetime achievement award by being placed on the 2nd team. He broke more than a few GCU records in his time there. Although there are already two Seattle U. players on the 2nd team, there probably should have been a third with Jordan Hill. He is the straw that stirs the Redhawk's drink. Braun is still a good player but I'm not sure he is one of the top 10 in the WAC.

Speaking of odd postseason selections, how is UVU's Manyang a Top 10 player in District VIII (USBWA All-District team) when he wasn't even a Top 10 player (1st or 2nd Team) in his own conference?

(03-06-2018 11:36 PM)gleadley Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 08:06 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  Braun kind of received a lifetime achievement award by being placed on the 2nd team. He broke more than a few GCU records in his time there. Although there are already two Seattle U. players on the 2nd team, there probably should have been a third with Jordan Hill. He is the straw that stirs the Redhawk's drink. Braun is still a good player but I'm not sure he is one of the top 10 in the WAC.

Speaking of odd postseason selections, how is UVU's Manyang a Top 10 player in District VIII (USBWA All-District team) when he wasn't even a Top 10 player (1st or 2nd Team) in his own conference?

With so few conference games, a player can't afford to miss many and still be considered for one of the primary WAC honors. Manyang missed three conference games this season and Durham missed two. I think unless their play was head and shoulder above the rest of the WAC, their absence from these games pretty much limited their chances from being selected to one of the All-WAC teams. Just my opinion.

(03-06-2018 11:47 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 11:36 PM)gleadley Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 08:06 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  Braun kind of received a lifetime achievement award by being placed on the 2nd team. He broke more than a few GCU records in his time there. Although there are already two Seattle U. players on the 2nd team, there probably should have been a third with Jordan Hill. He is the straw that stirs the Redhawk's drink. Braun is still a good player but I'm not sure he is one of the top 10 in the WAC.

Speaking of odd postseason selections, how is UVU's Manyang a Top 10 player in District VIII (USBWA All-District team) when he wasn't even a Top 10 player (1st or 2nd Team) in his own conference?

With so few conference games, a player can't afford to miss many and still be considered for one of the primary WAC honors. Manyang missed three conference games this season and Durham missed two. I think unless their play was head and shoulder above the rest of the WAC, their absence from these games pretty much limited their chances from being selected to one of the All-WAC teams. Just my opinion.

It is apparently an opinion that was shared by those voting, too.

Agreed about Braun. Frayer would’ve been the second team choice for me, over the all defensive team. JB is a great kid but with the way he played this season, he really didn’t deserve that much time on the floor, let alone second team conference awards.

How is Broderick Robinson not on the All Defensive team? In fact, they didn't choose one guard?

(03-07-2018 01:49 PM)RoosHouse Wrote:  How is Broderick Robinson not on the All Defensive team? In fact, they didn't choose one guard?

Who?

(03-07-2018 07:06 PM)gleadley Wrote:  

(03-07-2018 01:49 PM)RoosHouse Wrote:  How is Broderick Robinson not on the All Defensive team? In fact, they didn't choose one guard?

Who?

Lmao

Lever voted favorite player by ref. Foul out taller players so he is guarded by some 6-2 guy. When he still misses and shoots behind backboard wait to see if it goes in if not call foul. Dude wouldn't score in big 12, acc or sec.