WAC TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Boise State Broncos (11-7, 4-2 WAC)
Boise State went 0-2 at home last week with losses to Utah State (68-59) and Nevada (69-67) ... against USU, Westly Perryman (12) and Daequon Montreal (10) were each in double figures for the Broncos ... La’Shard Anderson tied his career high with six steals, and also added a game-high six assists ... against Nevada, Boise State made it a one-possession game with 30 seconds to play and had a chance to tie the score, but a three-pointer rimmed out and Nevada held on ... Robert Arnold and La’Shard Anderson scored 18 points each to lead Boise State against Nevada ... this week, Boise State travels to play in-state rival Idaho on Saturday.
Fresno State Bulldogs (7-9, 3-3 WAC)
Fresno State went 0-2 at home over the past week, dropping games to Utah State (52-39) and Idaho (67-57) ... against Utah State, Greg Smith led Fresno State with 10 points and nine rebounds ... Tim Steed returned to hardwood for the first time since the Bulldogs’ victory over Nevada on Jan. 3 ... Steed, a junior, missed the past two games with a left ankle injury ... against Idaho, Smith led the Dogs with 11 points and 10 rebounds, his sixth career double-double ... Garrett Johnson made 3-of-4 three point field goals to finish with nine points ... this week, Fresno State travels to play Hawai‘i on Thursday.
Hawai‘i Rainbows (10-8, 1-5 WAC)
Hawai‘i went 1-1 last week with an 82-64 loss at New Mexico State before taking a 56-48 victory at Louisiana Tech ... at NM State, Zane Johnson led UH with a career-high 25 points, while Vander Joaquim recorded his third career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds ... Bill Amis finished with 10 points before fouling out with 7:20 left in the game ... at LA Tech, Senior Bill Amis played the pivotal role in the UH lineup with a monster effort, posting 22 points and 12 rebounds, marking his first double-double of the season and fourth of his career ... this week, Hawai‘i returns to the island to host Fresno State and San Jose State.
Idaho Vandals (12-6, 5-1 WAC)
Idaho extended its WAC winning streak to five on Monday with a road win over Fresno State, its longest WAC win streak in team history … The Vandals are off to their best conference start since 1993-94, when the team started out 5-1 in the Big Sky Conference … Idaho’s win over Nevada was its first home win against the Wolf Pack since 2000 … Idaho shot 28-of-56 from the field at Cal State Bakersfield, which is the sixth time this year the Vandals have shot .500 or better as a team … the win at CSUB was Idaho’s first game against the Roadrunners and the first overtime game of the season, and was head coach Don Verlin’s first career overtime victory ... this week, Idaho hosts Boise State on Saturday.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (9-10, 0-5 WAC)
Louisiana Tech has lost six-straight games for the first time since 2007-08 following a 79-74 loss to San Jose State and a 56-48 loss to Hawai’i ... the Bulldogs sent out their 10th different starting lineup of the season against the Rainbow Warriors ... walk-on CJ Scott is the only Bulldog that hasn’t started at least one game ... Cordarius Johnson had a productive week as he hit five three-pointers to average 12.5 points for the week ... walk-on guard Tevin Hall scored a career-high 17 points against SJSU ... Tech made 12 three-pointers against the Spartans, the most by a Bulldog team since hitting 12 against SJSU on March 11, 2008. Tech remains in search of its first WAC win as it travels to Utah State and Nevada this week.
Nevada Wolf Pack (5-13, 2-3 WAC)
Nevada went 1-1 last week with a 72-67 loss at Idaho before a 69-67 win at Boise State ... at Idaho, Deonte Burton led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting for the Wolf Pack ... Duke transfer Olek Czyz had 14 points, 10 rebounds and five assists for Nevada ... Malik Story also scored 14 points ... at Boise State, Deonte Burton scored 20 points and Malik Story added 16 to lead Nevada to the road win ... Dario Hunt had 12 points and eight rebounds as Nevada snapped a three-game losing streak ... Nevada trailed 56-52 with less than six minutes remaining before Story staged a personal 8-0 run, scoring on a layup and two high-arching 3-pointers from the left corner ... this week, Nevada hosts New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech.
New Mexico State Aggies (10-9, 4-1 WAC)
Troy Gillenwater scored 13 points in 18 minutes to help NM State to an 82-64 victory over Hawai’i, Jan. 13 ... he also added 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season ... junior point guard Hernst Laroche added 14 points and five assists, while freshman guard Christian Kabongo scored 12 and senior guard Gordo Castillo scored 10 for the Aggies ... the Aggies won their third straight game and the eighth in the last 10 games with a 78-53 rout of San Jose State, Jan. 15 ... Gillenwater scored 18 points and Castillo scored 17 to lead NM State ... Kabongo added 14 points for the Aggies, who shot 47.5 percent from the floor and 11-of-26 (42.3 percent) from 3-point range ... this week, NM State travels to play Nevada and Utah State.
San Jose Spartans (9-8, 1-5 WAC)
San Jose State went 1-1 last week with a 79-74 victory at Louisiana Tech before a 78-53 setback at New Mexico State ... at LA Tech, Keith Shamburger and Justin Graham each scored 21 points as San Jose State ended a four-game losing streak ... San Jose State ended a 14-game conference road losing streak with the victory ... at NM State, Shamburger led all players in scoring with 19, 17 of them in the second half ... forward Wil Carter matched his season scoring high of 14 points and Graham chipped in with 11 points ... the Spartans split their two-game Louisiana Tech-New Mexico State road trip playing without guard Adrian Oliver, who has been experiencing concussion-like symptoms from a hit in practice ... this week, SJSU travels to play Hawai‘i.
Utah State Aggies (16-2, 5-0 WAC)
Utah State is 5-0 to start WAC play for the third time in its six years in the league .. USU is also 5-0 to start conference play for the sixth time under Morrill and for the 12th time in school history ... the Aggies went 2-0 last week with road wins at Boise State (68-59) and at Fresno State (52-39) ... junior guard Brockeith Pane had 19 points and eight rebounds and senior reserve guard Brian Green scored 16 points to lead Utah State to the win over Boise State ... at Fresno State, senior forward Nate Bendall posted his fourth career double-double with 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds ... with the win over Fresno State, USU tied the WAC record for consecutive league wins as it has now won 19-straight league games dating back to last season.
WAC NOTES
IDAHO’S LEDBETTER NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Idaho’s Jeff Ledbetter has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for Jan. 10-16. The honor marks the first career WAC Player of the Week award for Ledbetter.
Ledbetter, a senior guard from Brea, Calif. (Irvine Valley CC), led Idaho to a pair of wins against Nevada (72-67) and Cal State Bakersfield (78-77, OT). The win over Nevada extends Idaho’s WAC winning streak to a school-record four games. Against Nevada, Ledbetter went 4-for-8 from the field and a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line, scoring 17 points with a career-high three steals and two assists. He grabbed steals on three consecutive possessions late in the first half and scored seven straight points for Idaho to eliminate a four-point Nevada leads to put the Vandals ahead at the half.
On Saturday at Cal State Bakersfield, Ledbetter played a key role in the overtime victory. He stole the ball late in the game and scored on the break to get the Vandals to within one point, the shortly after, hit a buzzer-beating three-point field goal to give Idaho the 78-77 victory.
On the week, Ledbetter averaged 15.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals and 2.5 steals per game. He shot 50.0 percent (9-of-18) from the field and 54.5 percent (6-of-11) from three-point range. He also hit 100 percent (6-of-6) of his shots at the free throw line.
Other nominees included: Boise State senior forward Robert Arnold … Nevada freshman guard Deonte Burton … New Mexico State junior forward Troy Gillenwater … Utah State junior guard Brockeith Pane.
UTAH STATE SITS ALONE IN FIRST PLACE, IDAHO AND NEW MEXICO STATE FOLLOW CLOSELY
With its two road wins last week against Boise State and Fresno State, Utah State improved to a perfect 5-0 in WAC play to take sole possession of the top spot in the league’s standings. Idaho, which has won team-record five straight WAC games follows closely behind at 5-1 after wins over Nevada and Fresno State this past week. New Mexico State, which won both of its home games against Hawai‘i and San Jose State last week, improved to 4-1 in WAC play.
UTAH STATE TIES WAC RECORD FOR CONSECUTIVE WAC GAMES WON
Utah State’s current 19-game WAC winning streak is tied with Utah for the longest conference winning streak in league history as the Utes won 19 straight during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons. Overall, USU has won 37 of its last 41 WAC games and is 45-8 (.849) in WAC play during the last four years.
BOISE STATE AND SAN JOSE STATE TIE WAC RECORD WITH FOUR-OVERTIME GAME
Boise State defeated San Jose State 102-101 in four overtimes on Jan. 6. The four overtime game ties the WAC record for most overtimes played in a single game. The only other time two teams played a game that went into four overtimes was on March 3, 1983 when New Mexico defeated Hawai‘i 63-61 in Honolulu.
WAC TEAMS AMONG NATIONAL STAT LEADERS
As of Jan. 16, teams from the WAC rank in the top-25 in six team statistical categories. Individual WAC players rank in the top-25 in five individual categories. Utah State holds the highest team mark as it ranks ninth in the nation in rebound margin (8.7). Individually, San Jose State’s Adrian Oliver holds the highest individual ranking as he is third in the nation in scoring at 24.2 points per game. Utah State’s Tai Wesley ranks fourth nationally in field goal percentage at 63.6. Boise State’s La’Shard Anderson also holds a top-10 ranking as he is seventh nationally in steals per game at 2.8.
UTAH STATE HOLDS NATION’S FOURTH-LONGEST HOME WIN STREAK
Utah State has won 24 straight home games and 76 of its last 78 overall with its only losses coming against Saint Mary’s (68-63) on Dec. 5, 2009 and against Fresno State (71-66) on March 3, 2007. Saint Mary’s snapped USU’s school-record 37-game home winning streak. Utah State’s 24-game home winning streak is tied for the fourth-longest active winning streak in the nation. Kansas has the nation’s longest home winning streak (69), followed by Duke (30), Kentucky (28), Morehead State (24) and Utah State (24).
HEAD COACH STEW MORRILL COLLECTS 300th USU WIN
With an 81-53 victory over Long Beach State on Dec. 7, Utah State head coach Stew Morrill collected his 300th win at the helm of the Aggies. The USU head coach is now 310-101 directing the Aggie program and is the winningest coach in school history and is first all-time in games coached with 411. All-time, Morrill is now 528-239 in 25 years as a collegiate head coach.
ESPNU BRACKETBUSTERS
For the ninth year in a row, the WAC has partnered with ESPN and several other top college basketball conferences for 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 19. The match-ups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences about three weeks before the event.
WAC TOURNAMENT HEADS TO LAS VEGAS, TICKETS NOW ON SALE
The 2011 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 9-12 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will include the top eight teams in the regular-season standings. Ticket information is available at www.wacbasketballtournament.com.
TOURNAMENT FORMAT CHANGE
The WAC will change its postseason men’s and women’s basketball tournament format, effective for the 2011 tournament. The change was recommended by both the WAC men’s and women’s basketball coaches and approved by the WAC Board of Directors. The change will reward teams based on regular season success, giving the top two teams byes into the tournament semifinals. Under the format, the tournament will begin on Wednesday with two men’s and two women’s games featuring the No. 5 seed against the No. 8 seed and No. 6 versus No. 7. The winners then advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal matchups to play the No. 4 and No. 3 seeds. The winners of those games then advance to Friday’s semifinals against the top two seeds. The change also results in two men’s and two women’s games being played each day of the tournament except for Saturday, which will feature the men’s and women’s championship games.