This Week in the WAC ? The WAC will have three games on ESPN FullCourt this week. New Mexico State’s games with New Mexico (Dec. 4) and UTEP (Dec. 8) will be on ESPN FullCourt as well as the Louisiana Tech game against Texas Tech (Dec. 5). Along with New Mexico State’s rivalry games with UTEP and New Mexico, Utah State will also take on instate rival Utah on Dec. 5. Front-runner San Jose State will take on San Diego on the road then Santa Clara at home. Boise State, winners of four-straight games, will travel to Idaho State this week.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK ? New Mexico State guard/forward Justin Hawkins has been named the Western Athletic Conference men’s basketball player of the week for November 26-December 2. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week honor for the senior.
Hawkins, a senior from Anaheim, Calif. (Utah), averaged 27.7 points and 8.7 rebounds last week in three games for the Aggies. He was 22-for-43 from the field and 9-of-18 from the 3-point line. He also shot 85.7 percent from the free throw line. Hawkins tied his career-high performance in the first meeting of the year with I-10 rival UTEP, Nov. 27, when he had 29 points. He also had a career-high five 3-pointers. Hawkins followed that performance with a double-double consisting of 26 points and 11 rebounds in the first round of the Lou Henson Classic, Nov. 30. On Dec. 1, he had a game-high 28 points versus North Texas on 16-of-20 shooting from the line. Hawkins also added three assists, a block and a pair of steals. This season, he leads the Aggies in both scoring (19.5) and rebounding (8.5).
The other nominations were senior forward Matt Nelson, Boise State; senior guard Eddie Miller, Fresno State; senior guard Riley Luettgerodt, Hawai?i; sophomore guard Kyle Gibson, Louisiana Tech; junior forward DeVonte Thomas, San Jose State and senior guard Jaycee Carroll, Utah State.
WAC ON ESPN ? The WAC has a multi-year contract with ESPN for coverage of WAC football and basketball. The complete television schedule will be available at a later date.
O’REILLY ESPNU BRACKETBUSTERS ? For the sixth year in a row, the WAC has partnered with ESPN and several other top college basketball conferences for the O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters, a weekend men’s basketball event matching potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other. All nine WAC teams will be a part of this year’s pool of teams. The event will be held February 22-24, and ESPN2 and ESPNU will present 11 games. The match-ups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences about three weeks before the event.
NELSON AND CARROLL CANDIDATES FOR SENIOR AWARD ? Utah State All-American Jaycee Carroll and Boise State’s Matt Nelson have been named two of 30 candidates for the 2007-08 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, which is presented annually to the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete of the Year, it was announced on Tuesday.
Carroll, a 6-2 senior guard from Evanston, Wyo., is the only player from the state of Utah to be selected for this award and one of just two candidates from the WAC.
Nelson, a 6-9 senior forward from Issaquah, Wash., is first in the WAC in field goal percentage (.657). The senior is also seventh in the WAC in scoring, averaging 18.0 ppg.
Previous winners of the men’s award include Juan Dixon of Maryland (2002), David West of Xavier (2003), Jameer Nelson of St. Joseph’s (2004), Wayne Simien of Kansas (2005), J.J. Reddick of Duke (2006) and Alando Tucker of Wisconsin (2007).
CARROLL AND KEMP NAMED TO NAISMITH AND WOODEN WATCH LISTS ? Utah State’s Jaycee Carroll and Nevada’s Marcelus Kemp continue to receive national attention this fall and were recently named to the preseason watch list for the 2007-08 Naismith Trophy presented by AT&T, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced. Last week, both were named one of 50 preseason candidates for the 2007-08 John R. Wooden Award.
The Naismith Trophy watch list, which consists of 50 players, was compiled by the Atlanta Tipoff Club’s Board of Selectors, which based its preseason criteria on player performances from last season and expectations for the 2007-08 season. There were 17 seniors and 17 juniors on the preseason list, along with 16 sophomores. The list does not include incoming freshmen, although those student-athletes will be considered in the first vote in January, 2008. The Naismith Trophy is the most prestigious national award presented annually to college basketball’s player of the year.
KEEPING TRACK OF COACH MORRILL ? With five wins thus far this year, Utah State head coach Stew Morrill is now 218-79 (.734) in his 10th year at USU and is just seven wins shy of tying legendary coach E. Lowell Romney (1920-41) for the most wins in school history with 225. Coach Morrill is also just two games shy of tying H. Cecil Baker (1951-61) for the second-most games coached in USU history with 299.
CLOSE CALLS ? Nevada’s four losses this season have come by an average of just 6.25 points per game, while two of them - a 63-60 loss at UCF on Nov. 11 and last week’s 70-66 loss at Pacific - were decided by four points or less. Last year, Nevada’s five losses came by an average of just 6.8 points per game. In his three-plus years as Nevada’s head coach, Mark Fox’s squads have only lost six games by a margin in double figures.
BOISE STATE’S NELSON NEARS MILESTONE ? While chances are slim that Matt Nelson will join Boise State’s career 1,000-point list, it is almost a sure thing the Bronco senior will end his playing career with 1,000-career points. Nelson has scored 953 career points, leaving him 47 shy of 1,000 heading into the Broncos’ game at Idaho State. Nelson scored 425 points in two seasons at Eastern Washington and then scored 417 last season for Boise State. He has 111 through seven games this year. Nelson does have an outside chance of joining Boise State’s career 1,000-point club, but he would need to score 583 points during his senior season, a point total only Roberto Bergersen (644 in 1998-99) and Ron Austin (636 in 1970-71) have reached while at Boise State.
RIVALRY WEEK ? The New Mexico State men’s basketball team begins rivalry week when the Aggies host New Mexico Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Pan American Center. The game is available on Aggie Vision across the state and Fox Sports-Arizona. Fans can also listen to the game on the Aggie Sports Network and on KGRT 103.9 FM in Las Cruces with the ?Voice of the Aggies’ Jack Nixon or in Spanish with Martin Cortez on Vista 98.7 FM. Prior to tip-off, the team is raising the NCAA Tournament banner for NMSU’s 2007 appearance.
2007-08 Television Schedule
Upcoming Games (All times local to playing site/Subject to change)
Date Game Time Outlet
12/4 New Mexico at NMSU 7:00 p.m. Aggie Vision
12/8 UTEP at NMSU 7:00 p.m. Aggie Vision
12/8 Fresno State at UNLV 7:00 p.m. Bulldog Sports Net
12/8 LMU at Boise State 7:00 p.m. KTVB-Boise
12/11 Prairie View at NMSU 7:00 p.m. Aggie Vision
12/16 Fresno State at Arizona 7:00 p.m. Bulldog Sports Net
12/20 Utah Valley at Utah State 7:00 p.m. KJZZ-TV
12/22 Nevada at Northern Iowa 1:05 p.m. Wolfpack Sports Net
12/29 Fresno State at Stanford 7:00 p.m. Bulldog Sports Net
12/29 Brigham Young at Boise State 7:00 p.m. KTVB-Boise
12/31 Alcorn St. at New Mexico State 1:00 p.m. Aggie Vision
ON THE BOARDS ? Fresno State senior forward Hector Hernandez grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds on Saturday, November 17 at Cal State Bakersfield. Hernandez had four offensive rebounds and 10 defensive boards. Hernandez set a career-high earlier in the year with three assists against Liberty in the second game of the season.
CARROLL CLOSING IN ON SEVERAL SCHOOL RECORDS ? Along with ranking third all-time in school history in scoring, senior guard Jaycee Carroll is closing in on several other Utah State career records, as he ranks first all-time in school history in three-point shooting (.456), is tied for first in three-pointers made (283), is second in three-pointers attempted (621) and 10-point games (95), is third in games started (106), fifth in minutes per game (33.5), total minutes played (3,622), free throw percentage (.843) and field goals made (673), and sixth in field goals attempted (1,333). Carroll also ranks 10th all-time in steals (97), is 11th all-time in points per game (17.8), 15th all-time in games played (108) and 20th all-time in assists (217).
WAC TOURNAMENT TO RETURN TO RENO IN 2009 ? Western Athletic Conference commissioner Karl Benson announced that the WAC Board of Directors awarded the 2009 and 2010 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments to the University of Nevada and the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. The tournaments will be held in the 11,485-seat Lawlor Events Center, located on the campus of the University of Nevada.
The WAC tournaments were last held in Reno in 2006. The 2007 tournaments were held in Las Cruces, New Mexico at New Mexico State University, as will the 2008 tournaments before returning to Reno in 2009.
NEW MEXICO STATE TO HOST 2008 WAC TOURNAMENT ? Las Cruces and New Mexico State University will host the 2008 WAC Tournament, March 11-15. It will be the second year in a row that the event will be held at the Pan American Center. The tournament features all nine men’s and women’s teams.
SUPER SENIORS ? The WAC seniors are leading the way offensivley this season.Seven of the top 10 leading scorers in the league are seniors, while eight of the top 10 are upperclassmen. Utah State Jaycee Carroll leads the way, averaging 20.3 ppg. Carroll is the only player in the WAC averaging over 20 ppg. Fresno State senior Kevin Bell is sixth in scoring (17.5 ppg) and first in assists (6.29 apg). There are two underclassman to break the top 10 in scoring in Louisiana Tech sophomore Kyle Gibson (14.4 ppg) and Nevada sophomore JaVale McGee (14.2 ppg).
ON THE BOARDS ? New Mexico State is dominating teams on the boards this season and out-rebounding their opponents by a 9.1 margin. NMSU has grabbed 143 offensive rebounds this year, which is an average of 15.89 per contest. Freshman forward Wendell McKines leads the WAC in offensive rebounds, averaging 3.89 rebounds per contest.
NEVADA TOP TEAM OVER LAST FOUR YEARS ? Over the last five seasons, Nevada is 108-28 (.794), the best record of any WAC team during that time. In conference games, Nevada has won 56 games, the most in that same time period. The top three teams in wins (both overall and WAC) over the last four seasons:
Overall Record (Pct.) WAC Record (Pct.)
1. Nevada 108-28 (.794) 1. Nevada 56-12 (.824)
2. Utah State 98-36 (.731) 2. Fresno State 37-31 (.544)
3. Hawai?i 73-51 (.589) 3. Hawai?i 36-32 (.529)
TEAM LEADERS ? The WAC has six schools with players who led their team in two of three statistical categories (points-rebounds-assists).
Reggie Larry, Sr., F, Boise State (18.3 ppg, 9.7 rpg)
Kevin Bell, Sr., G, Fresno State (19.3 ppg, 5.8 apg)
Bobby Nash, Sr., G/F, Hawai?i (22.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
Jordan Brooks, Jr., F, Idaho (5.3 rpg, 6.7 apg)
Kyle Gibson, So., G, Louisiana Tech (11.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg)
C.J. Webster, So., C, San Jose State (13.3 ppg, 9.7 rpg)
NON-CONFERENCE MARK ? The WAC was 73-55 (.570) in non-conference games in 2006-07, including a 69-55 (.556) mark against Division I teams. In 2005-06, the WAC was 63-52 (.548) in non-conference games (57-52 against Division I teams). The WAC’s best record ever against non-conference opponents came during the 1974-75 season when it was 73-22 (.768).
TOURNAMENT OPPONENTS ? WAC teams could face at least 18 non-conference opponents that played in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Boise State, Fresno State and New Mexico State are scheduled to play three of those teams, a WAC-high.
Utah State at Weber State, Nov. 10
New Mexico State at Duke, Nov. 12
Florida A&M at New Mexico State, Nov. 14 (Legends Classic)
Washington State at Boise State, Nov. 13
Idaho at Gonzaga, Nov. 13
Idaho at Washington State, Nov. 16
Illinois at Hawai?i, Nov. 16
Nevada at UNLV, Nov. 24
Louisiana Tech at Texas Tech, Dec. 5
Fresno State at UNLV, Dec. 8
Fresno State at Arizona, Dec. 16
San Jose State at Michigan State, Dec. 19
Boise State at Albany, Dec. 22
New Mexico State at Louisville, Dec. 22
Nevada at North Carolina, Dec. 27
Brigham Young at Boise State, Dec. 29
Oral Roberts at Utah State, Dec. 29
Fresno State at Stanford, Dec. 29
Boise State Broncos (5-2, 0-0 WAC)
Matt Nelson is in familiar territory ... last year’s WAC leader in field goal percentage is once again atop the
league in shooting percentage ... Nelson has made 65.7 percent (46-of-70) of his shots, and is 4.2 percent ahead of Utah State’s Stephen DuCharme and New Mexico State’s Hatila Passos ... Nelson is also seventh in the league in scoring (15.9 ppg), fifth in rebounding (8.0 rpg), seventh in offensive rebounds (2.29 rpg) and fifth in defensive rebounds (5.71 rpg) ... Boise State is seventh in the nation in field goal percentage (.520) ...the Broncos are also 28th in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 83.0 ppg.
Fresno State Bulldogs (4-3, 0-0 WAC)
The Bulldogs have two games this week, returning
home to host sister school Cal State Monterey Bay on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Save Mart Center and then hitting the road to play UNLV, the defending Mountain West Conference champion, Saturday at 7 p.m. ... that game will be played at the Orleans Arena instead of the Rebels’ home court, the Thomas & Mack Center. Fresno State’s home game is just one of three in the month of December for the Bulldogs, who after Wednesday won’t return to the Save Mart Center until Dec. 20.
Hawai?i Rainbow Warriors (2-4, 0-0 WAC)
After missing the first four games of the season, co-captain Matt Gibson made his first appearance of the year vs. Coppin State on Nov. 27 ... the senior guard scored a game-high 18 points and added six assists and four rebounds off the bench ... senior Bobby Nash is fifth in the WAC in scoring, averaging 18.0 ppg, and second in the league in free throw percentage, making 23 of 26 for .885 percent ... Hawai?i returns to the islands this week where it will play six-straight home games in the month of December, beginning with a match-up versus Long Beach State on Sunday, Dec. 9.
Idaho Vandals (1-5, 0-0 WAC)
After being outscored 153-77 in the second half of its previous four games, Idaho outscored Idaho State 41-32 in its last game to force overtime ... Idaho is averaging 22.5 fouls per game through six games ... that has resulted in opponents attempting nearly nine (8.8) more free throws per game (53 total) ... Jordan Brooks currently is ranked No. 18 in the nation for steals at 2.8 steals per game ... Idaho is rebounding the ball better than last season ... through six games the Vandals average 31.5 rebounds per game with opponents averaging 35.0 ... through six games during the 2006-07 season the Vandals averaged just 27.5 rebounds, while opponents were grabbing 37.3.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (1-5, 0-0 WAC)
Sophomore Kyle Gibson is ninth in the league in scoring, averaging 14.4 ppg ... Gibson is second in the WAC in rebounding, averaging 9.2 rpghe is one of two underclassmen in the top 10 in scoring in the WAC ... Louisiana Tech will return to the road once more to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday, Dec. 5 ... this will mark the third year in a row the Bulldogs and the Red Raiders have played each other ... in the past three games, the road team won both matchups ... junior Drew Peterson is tied for second in the WAC in three-point field goal percentage, making half his attempts (5-for-10, .500).
Nevada Wolf Pack (2-4, 0-0 WAC)
The Wolf Pack begins a four-game home stand this week, its longest of the season, playing host to Montana State ... Nevada saw its 13-game home winning streak come to an end last week with a loss to California on Nov. 28 ... the Wolf Pack has still won 25 of its last 27 games at Lawlor Events Center ... Nevada heads into this week looking to snap its first three-game losing streak since the 2000-01 season ... senior Marcelus Kemp turned in his second career double-double Saturday at Pacific with 20 points and a career-high-tying 12 rebounds ... he also added 26 points in Wednesday’s game vs. California ...Kemp is third in the WAC in scoring, averaging 18.5 ppg.
New Mexico State Aggies (3-6, 0-0 WAC)
The Aggies will play two rivals this week, hosting New Mexico and UTEP ... in addition to freshman forward Wendell McKines leading the league in offensive rebounds, the Aggies rank first in rebounding offense (41.3), rebounding margin (+9.1) and offensive rebounds (15.89) ... senior guard/forward Justin Hawkins is second in scoring (19.5) and third in rebounding (8.5) while senior center Hatila Passos is tied for second in field goal percentage (.615) as of Dec. 2 ... this season, the Aggies are averaging 3.7 blocks per game with senior center Martin Iti leading the way with 14 ... he ranks second in the WAC with 1.56 per game as of Dec. 2.
San Jose State Spartans (3-1, 0-0 WAC)
After four games, San Jose State ranks second in the WAC in rebound margin at +8.5 ... the Spartans were not outrebounded in any of their first four games and had double-digit differences in the Appalachian
State and Lipscomb games ... in 2006-07, San Jose State had a -2.6 rebounding margin ... San Jose State’s non-starters are averaging 23 points per game ... the non-starters scored a season-high 28 points in the Cal State Bakersfield victory ... in three of San Jose State’s first four games, the Spartans scored 70 or more points. Last season, San Jose State scored 70 or more points just three times in 30 games.
Utah State Aggies (5-4, 0-0 WAC)
The Aggies will take on instate rival Utah on Dec, 5 .. Utah State has won 11 of its last 14 games versus in-state opponents and is 19-7 (.731) against the state of Utah during the last eight years ... during that time period, USU is 5-3 versus BYU, 5-2 versus Utah, 7-2 versus Weber State and 2-0 against Utah Valley. Overall, USU is 20-12 (.625) versus teams from the state of Utah under head coach Stew Morrill ... Utah State and Utah will be meeting for the 220th time this week, extending the second-oldest rivalry in USU history. USU has played BYU 225 times in school history ... Utah State is 60-53 (.531) on the road under Coach Morrill.