Thursday, February 6, 2014

Midseason All WAC

I could make an argument for seven New Mexico State players in the Top 10 at the midway point of Western Athletic Conference play. We know it never works out that way though, since it seems a team's success tends to weigh more than the eye test or numbers.

With that in mind, here is my WAC first and second team at the midway point. I used WAC only stats. I did not include Sim Bhullar since he has only played in two games, although he will certainly make an impact by the end of conference play. The First team is a little guard heavy while the second team has more interior players.

What do you think?

First team
Daniel Mullings, New Mexico State: Mullings is fifth in WAC scoring at 18.1 ppg, 9th in rebounding with 7.3 per game and second in steals, clearly the best player in the WAC thus far.

Daniel Mullings is a no-brainer first team WAC player. Who joins him on the first team?
Photo for the Sun-News by Gary Mook

Holton Hunsaker, Utah Valley: I will say one thing about the WAC. There are several good point guards in the league. Personally, I think Grayson at Bakersfield is the best of them, but Hunsaker lands here because he's the best player on the first place team. Hunsaker is averaging 12.3 points and 3.25 assists per game, and shoots the 3 at 33 percent. Not great numbers, but from watching him, he's clearly a leader on the league's first place team.

Tshilidzi Nephawe, New Mexico State: Nephawe carried the load without Bhullar in the lineup, averaging 12.4 points per game. He scored in double figures in six of the Aggies first eight WAC games and he had 9 points in the other two games. Nephawe is third in the league in rebounding with 9.5 per game and he leads the WAC with 2.50 blocks per game.

Jerome Garrison, Grand Canyon: Garrison leads the WAC in scoring at 20.8 points per game. He is forth in the WAC in 3 points percentage at 47.5 percent. He also did it against the Aggies, scoring 25 points against NMSU, one of just two league losses thus far.

Isiah Umipig, Seattle: This is more of an eye test selection for me since Seattle is in last place. Umipig is tied for ninth in scoring with 15.9 points per game but he's still the league's overall scorer. What I liked about Umipig is that although he has a green light, he looks to get his teammates involved first, averaging 4 assists per game, which is tied for fourth in the WAC

Second team
Stephen Madison, Idaho: Madison is a good player who is on a bad team with no offensive threats around him outside of Connor Hill. He's third in scoring (18.8 ppg), seventh in rebounding (8 rpg) and he's 15th in assists with 2.38.

Renaldo Dixon, New Mexico State: Dixon started the Aggies first eight WAC games. He's been up and down on both ends, but his 33 points against UMKC is the most for a WAC player this year and it showed what he's capable of. He's averaging 6.5 rebounds per game and he's sixth in blocked shots with 1.25 per game.

Issiah Grayson, Bakersfield: I thought Bakersfield would be better, and I think after watching all of the teams play against the Aggies, they could be the team NMSU would least like to play in the tournament. Grayson is second in the WAC in scoring wtih 20 ppg and fourth in assists with 4 apg.

Ben Aird, Utah Valley: Just from watching Aird against NMSU, the word awkward came to mind, but he's averaging 14 ppg and 9.9 rebounds per game in WAC play.

Killian Larson, Grand Canyon: Larson is the only player in the WAC averaging a double double and that gets him on the list with 14 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in WAC play.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those losses were killer. What's the best seed we can hope for now in the NCAA tourney -- 13, 14??? We biffed it hard.

Anonymous said...

at best, ESPN has UVU in a play in game as a 16 most recently. We are much better than that but I would look forward to a chance to truly shock the world and upset a 1 seed.