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MWC Conference Awards - Men's Basketball

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NowherePoke

Well-known member
What are everyone's picks for conference honors this year? Obviously the big question for Wyoming fans is how the voters will view Larry Nance. A clear 1st-team All-MWC player prior to the injury, but does he get bumped after missing 5 games?

Here are my picks:

1st Team All-MWC:

G - Deonte Burton (Sr.) - Powerful guard that can do it all. Nevada is going to be awful next year without him. He covered up for bad coaching. The Nevada/Burton/Carter scenario reminds me very much of Wyoming/Ewing/Schroyer.
G - Xavier Thames (Sr.) - Clear leader on the conference champ.
G - Kendall Williams (Sr.) - Reigning POY won't repeat, but was still a force all year long.
F - Cameron Bairstow (Sr.) - POY (more on that later) and a testament to hard work. Two years ago there wasn't a single fan in ABQ or elsewhere (probably not even in the Bairstow household) that expected Bairstow to become the most dominant player in the league.
F - Larry Nance, Jr. (Jr.) - He might not have been the best player in the MWC this year, nod to Bairstow, but he was the MVP as we found out the hard way.

2nd Team All-MWC:

G - Tyler Johnson (Sr.) - Most underrated player in the MWC IMO. Smooth scorer from a variety of spots on the floor.
G - Anthony Drmic (Jr.) - Hampered by an injury late, but terrifying to guard when healthy.
G/F - Winston Shepherd (So.) - Probably the most versatile player in the league. Preseason first team next year.
F - Khem Birch (Jr. ) - Fantastic shot-blocker (too much so at times like many shot blockers) and the player that might bump Nance from the first team.
F - Ryan Watkins (Sr. ) - Most consistent player on BSU. Best offensive rebounder in the league.


3rd Team All-MWC:

G - Daniel Bejarano (Jr.) - 7.5 rbg from the guard position.
G - Tre Coggins (So.) - Should be a force for the next couple of years.
F - JJ Avila (Jr.) - Not the most athletic guy, but skilled from multiple spots on the floor. Probably the only returning player on this list that might not start next year.
F - Roscoe Smith (Jr.) - Great rebounder
F - Alex Kirk (Jr.) - Will be interesting to see if he comes back next year or uses the graduate transfer exemption to go somewhere else (UCLA?).


Coach of the Year: Steve Fisher

Player of the Year: Cameron Bairstow (Sr.)

Freshman of the Year: Paul Watson, Fresno - What is is about Fresno players and being underrated. Maybe it is just me, but this should be a runaway yet I have seen a lot of lists that omit Watson for Muhammad. Muhammad was fine but there are a lot of guys in the MWC that could have gone out there and jacked up a ton of 3's for a crappy team. Watson was a key piece (10/5) for a Fresno team that was right there with UNLV, Nevada, Boise, and Wyoming in the middle of the pack.

Defensive Player of the Year: Khem Birch (Jr.) - I might have given it to Nance if he played the whole year, but I thought Birch had a slight lead here even before Larry went down. This could also be assigned to the entire SDSU team.

Newcomer of the Year: JJ Avila (Jr.)
 
I think Larry deserves defensive player of the year more than he might deserve first team. I would put him second team and DPOY.
 
i don't know how adams can't be on the list somewhere....hes been pretty irreplaceable this season too...theres a lot of games we may not have won without him...Even when Nance was playing...
 
ItSucksToBeACSURam said:
i don't know how adams can't be on the list somewhere....hes been pretty irreplaceable this season too...theres a lot of games we may not have won without him...Even when Nance was playing...
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2nd or 3rd team maybe, but he also had some pretty off games that will keep him off of 1st team for sure. But the last few games, he really came into his own.
 
ItSucksToBeACSURam said:
i don't know how adams can't be on the list somewhere....hes been pretty irreplaceable this season too...theres a lot of games we may not have won without him...Even when Nance was playing...
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in place of......?
 
But nice to see Nance wasn't bumped off for a late injury. And if he hadn't gone down, he would have made a good case for DPOY.
 
Not too far off on your predictions Nowhere Poke. The actual First team:
Cameron Bairstow - UNM
Deonte Burton - Nev.
Kendall Williams - UNM
Xavier Thomas - SDSU
Larry Nance Jr. - WYO

Larry also got All-Defensive team, but Defender of the year went to Birch of UNLV. No other Wyo players mentioned on the 3 teams, honorable mention, or all-D team.
 
If Sobey and Adams had stepped up earlier in the season, they would have had good shots at making all conference teams.

And like I said, if Nance hadn't gone down, Birch probably would not have won DPOY, and it would have gone to Nance, and Rebels18 would be having an even bigger fit than he already is.
 
Looks like mine were pretty similar to the actual. Sort of kicking myself over forgetting that Josh Davis was a newcomer. Agree with him over Avila in that spot.

The voters liked Bejarano more than I did and I understand Davis over Smith for 3rd team.

The only one I disagree with is Dejean-Jones. I would have put not only Shepherd (who I included) above him, but Marks, Shaw, and Butterfield. Jones is a talent, but his inconsistent effort and poor shot selection really hurt UNLV.
 
fromolwyoming said:
If Sobey and Adams had stepped up earlier in the season, they would have had good shots at making all conference teams.

And like I said, if Nance hadn't gone down, Birch probably would not have won DPOY, and it would have gone to Nance, and Rebels18 would be having an even bigger fit than he already is.
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How so? Birch was averaging more blocks per game.
 
VisorHair said:
fromolwyoming said:
If Sobey and Adams had stepped up earlier in the season, they would have had good shots at making all conference teams.

And like I said, if Nance hadn't gone down, Birch probably would not have won DPOY, and it would have gone to Nance, and Rebels18 would be having an even bigger fit than he already is.
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How so? Birch was averaging more blocks per game.
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But Nance overall was a better defender, and better player. Nance also had steals, forced TOs, and just good defense. Birch, even though he swatted away a lot of balls, a critical point of that was that he would just swat them as hard as he could and not much else.
 
VisorHair said:
fromolwyoming said:
If Sobey and Adams had stepped up earlier in the season, they would have had good shots at making all conference teams.

And like I said, if Nance hadn't gone down, Birch probably would not have won DPOY, and it would have gone to Nance, and Rebels18 would be having an even bigger fit than he already is.
Click to expand...

How so? Birch was averaging more blocks per game.
Click to expand...

Because Nance was one of the top shot blockers also and Nance was also near the top in steals per game and Defensive rebounds per game.

Birch blocked shots but he didn't get steals.
 
Pretty much. There's more to defense then just blocking shots, but don't tell UNLV fans that, they have their panties in a wad already because Nance made 1st.
 
fromolwyoming said:
Pretty much. There's more to defense then just blocking shots, but don't tell UNLV fans that, they have their panties in a wad already because Nance made 1st.
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Actually if you really break it down and put offensive AND defensive numbers together you could make a case for Nance as being the best player in the league.

Yeah Bairstow had a good year offensively but he wasn't on Nance's level defensively and the same goes for Thames.

I'm not saying Nance deserved player of the year obviously as he got hurt and even if he didn't get hurt it would have been Thames or Bairstow but when you break down all of their stats on the offensive and defensive ends together Nance is the better ALL- AROUND player. I believe Nance was the only player in the conference to be ranked in the top ten in ten different stats.
 
fromolwyoming said:
Pretty much. There's more to defense then just blocking shots, but don't tell UNLV fans that, they have their panties in a wad already because Nance made 1st.
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UNLV fans can choke on a horseturd. Until they play the tourney somewhere other than their homecourt on primetime, they don't have the right to B#tch and moan.
 
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