WAC NOTES
SAN JOSE STATE’S KINNEY NAMED WAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
San Jose State’s James Kinney has been named the Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 3-9.
Kinney, a senior guard from Champaign, Ill. (Eastern Utah), led the Spartans to a pair of wins last week. He scored 27 points with five rebounds, four steals and two assists in a 73-64 road win at UC Davis. He followed up that effort with a 20-point, six-rebound performance in a 62-57 win at home against Sacramento State. Kinney has now scored 20 or more points in six of San Jose State’s eight games this season, including. He has scored 20 or more points in five straight games. He had six three-point field goals on the week, which gives him 106 for his career, tying him for 10th all-time at SJSU.
On the week, Kinney averaged 23.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game. He shot 42.9 percent (18-of-42) from the field, 33.3 percent (6-of-18) from three-point range, and 62.5 percent (5-of-8) from the free throw line.
Other nominees included: Denver sophomore forward Royce O’Neale scored 22 points with five rebounds in a win over Mercer … Idaho junior guard/forward Stephen Madison scored 29 points with 10 rebounds in an overtime win at Eastern Washington … Louisiana Tech sophomore guard Kenneth Smith tallied 14 assists and 11 steals over two games last week … New Mexico State senior forward Bandja Sy recorded an 11-point, 14-rebound double-double in a win at South Alabama … UTSA senior guard Kannon Burrage tallied 40 points over two games … Texas State senior forward Matt Staff scored 21 points with seven rebounds in a win over Texas-Pan American … Utah State freshman guard Marcel Davis scored 21 points and pulled down five rebounds in a win over Western Oregon.
WAC TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS
The 2013 WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held March 12-16 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and will include all ten WAC teams. Ticket information and tournament format are available at www.wacbasketball.com
WEEK FIVE RECAP
San Jose State had the most success among WAC teams last week, going a perfect 2-0. The Spartans defeated UC Davis 73-64 on the road before returning home to defeat Sacramento State 62-57. SJSU’s James Kinney was named the WAC’s Player of the Week after leading the league in scoring last week with a 23.5 points per game average. UT Arlington, Utah State, Denver and New Mexico State each went 1-0 last week. UT Arlington defeated UT Pan American 60-51 on the road. USU defeated Western Oregon at home, 86-57. Denver downed Mercer 69-40 at home, while New Mexico State defeated South Alabama 58-52 for the team’s first road victory. Texas State, Louisiana Tech and Idaho each went 1-1. Texas State dropped an 86-77 decision to Oral Roberts before defeating UT Pan American 73-58. LA Tech dropped an 89-83 decision at Northwestern State before defeating Southern Miss 65-55. Idaho picked up an 81-79 overtime victory at Eastern Washington before taking a 64-60 setback at UTEP. UTSA dropped both of its games last week to Mississippi State and USC Upstate.
WAC TEAMS/PLAYERS AMONG NATIONAL STATISTICAL LEADERS
As of Dec. 9, teams from the WAC rank in the top-10 in three team statistical categories and four individual categories. UT Arlington and Utah State hold the highest team marks. UTA ranks third nationally in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to a 33.8 percentage. Utah State ranks third in the nation in rebound margin at 15.0, while Seattle U ranks eighth in steals per game at 11.0. Individually, Texas State’s Matt Staff holds the highest mark as he ranks first nationally with a 100 percent free-throw percentage. Staff is a perfect 23-for-23 at the charity stripe this season. San Jose State’s James Kinney ranks fourth in scoring at 23.0 points per game. UTSA’s Michael Hale III ranks seventh nationally with a 54.5 clip from long range. LA Tech’s Kenneth Smith ranks sixth in the nation with 3.3 steals per game, followed by SJSU’s Kinney at 10th with 3.0 per game.
LOUISIANA TECH WINS 30TH-STRAIGHT NON-CONFERENCE HOME GAME
Louisiana Tech won its 30th-straight non-conference home game in a win over Southern Miss last week. The last non-conference loss at the Thomas Assembly Center for LA Tech was on Dec. 11, 2007.
WAC TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Denver Pioneers (2-5, 0-0 WAC)
The Pioneers welcome Nebraska Omaha to Magness Arena on Saturday ... the Pioneers are 2-0 all-time against the Mavericks with a pair of wins in Omaha in 1943 and 1957 ... senior guard Chase Hallam moved into fifth on DU’s all-time career steals list with 143 and also grabbed his 400th career rebound in Denver’s win over Mercer on Dec. 5 ... Hallam is just 25 points away from becoming the 32nd Pioneer in the 1,000-point club ... junior forward Chris Udofia is a single block shy of moving into third on DU’s all-time career list in blocked shots, and three more blocks would move him into second place ... sophomore forward Royce O’Neale scored 22 points against Mercer, matching the career high he set a week earlier at Southern Miss ... in his first career start, freshman Jalen Love (Wichita, Kan.) recorded a team-high five assists against Mercer.
Idaho Vandals (3-5, 0-0 WAC)
Idaho went 1-1 during the week with a road win at Eastern Washington and a road loss at UTEP … Idaho trailed by 17 points with just under 16 minutes to play at EWU before rallying with a 21-3 run and winning in overtime, 81-79 … the Vandal men trailed by 18 points at UTEP with a little more than 12 minutes to play and fought back within two points before falling by a 64-60 margin … sophomore guard Connor Hill converted a four-point play in each of Idaho’s games during the week, the first two of his career … UI’s 17-point comeback win on Thursday is tied as its largest under head coach Don Verlin and is the largest road comeback since Verlin started at Idaho in 2008-09 … both Kyle Barone (20 pts/11 rebs) and Stephen Madison (29 pts/10 rebs) had 20/10 games for Idaho on Thursday at EWU, marking the first time on record that two Idaho players have registered 20/10 efforts in the same game in at least the last 20 years at Idaho.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (8-2, 0-0 WAC)
Louisiana Tech went 1-1 last week ... the Bulldogs dropped an 89-83 decision at Northwestern State before retuning home to defeat Southern Miss 65-55 ... with the win over Southern Miss, LA Tech has now won 30 consecutive non-conference games at home dating back to December of 2007 ... the Bulldog defense has now held four of their 10 opponents this season to under 60 points ... the Bulldog bench scored 32 of the 65 total points in the win over Southern Miss ... guard Kenneth Smith has now recorded at least three steals in five of the 10 games played this season ... forward Michale Kyser pulled down a career-high 17 rebounds against Northwestern State, 10 of those being offensive rebounds ... LA Tech returns to action on Wednesday when the team travels to play McNeese State.
New Mexico State Aggies (5-4, 0-0 WAC)
The New Mexico State men’s basketball team collected its first road of the season with a 58-52 victory at South Alabama this past week ... sophomore guard Daniel Mullings led the Aggies in scoring with 13 points ... freshman center Sim Bhullar contributed 12 points off the bench for his third double-digit game of the year ... senior forward Bandja Sy recorded his second career double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds, a career-high mark, along with a vital steal in the last 20 seconds of the game ... sophomore guard K.C. Ross-Miller had nine points including two free throws to seal the game ... New Mexico State continues play this week at No. 17 New Mexico on Saturday afternoon in Albuquerque.
San Jose State Spartans (5-3, 0-0 WAC)
San Jose State went 2-0 last week with wins over UC Davis and Sacramento State ... James Kinney was named the WAC’s player of the week after he led his team with 27 points at UC Davis and 20 points in the win at home over Sacramento State ... Chris Cunningham recorded his third consecutive and fourth of the season double-double with 10 points and 17 rebounds against Sacramento State ... he added 12 points and 10 rebounds at UC Davis earlier in the week ... Cunningham has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in five consecutive games ... for the second time in three games and eight days, D.J. Brown dished nine assists in a game, this time against UC Davis. He is averaging 4.8 assists per game ... Brown also had a good night against UC Davis when he did not commit a turnover in 35 minutes of action ... SJSU continues play on Tuesday against Santa Clara.
Seattle U Redhawks (3-3, 0-0 WAC)
Seattle U did not play any games over the past week as the players took fall quarter finals ... the team had Monday and Wednesday off from practice before starting to prepare for the first of two intrastate rivalry games coming up ... the Redhawks left Sunday for the eastern part of the state in anticipation for Monday’s game at Big Sky school Eastern Washington ... Seattle U got their first victory at Eastern Washington since 2009 on Monday ... Eastern Washington had won the last two meetings in Cheney until SU’s 75-69 win on Monday ... next Thursday, Seattle U welcomes crosstown rival Washington to KeyArena for a game expected to pack the lower bowl of the arena ... the Redhawks have won only four of 27 meetings over the Huskies, with the last victory over Washington coming on Nov. 28, 1978 ... that game starts a five-game home stretch for Seattle U.
UT Arlington Mavericks (4-2, 0-0 WAC)
Brandon Edwards scored 17 to lead UT Arlington past Texas-Pan American 60-51 in a nonconference game Monday night at UTPA Fieldhouse in the team’s lone contest of the week ... the Mavericks concluded a stretch of four consecutive road games with a 3-1 record ... Edwards reached double figures in scoring for the second time this season and set a new career high ... the junior forward knocked down 6 of 7 shots, including his only 3-point attempt, and grabbed seven rebounds ... senior forwards Karol Gruszecki (12 points) and Kevin Butler (11) also reached double digits ... senior center Jordan Reves had nine points ... the Mavericks finally return to College Park Center ... UT Arlington plays host to Houston Baptist on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. ... Five of the next six UTA games are at home.
UTSA Roadrunners (3-6, 0-0 WAC)
UTSA has dropped five straight games, its longest streak since also losing five in a row during the 2010-11 campaign … the Roadrunners are off for final exams before returning to the court on Dec. 21 at former Southland Conference rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi … UTSA’s six-game road swing from Nov. 21 to Dec. 21 will take them to six different states and four time zones and see them travel 10,435 miles through the air and on the ground … UTSA leads the WAC with 7.9 3-pointers per game and rank second with a .366 3-point field goal percentage … Kannon Burrage ranks third in the WAC in scoring (18.3 ppg), while Michael Hale III stands fifth (16.4 ppg) … Jeromie Hill, a preseason second-team All-WAC selection who stands seventh in the league in rebounding (7.2 rpg), ranks eighth in school history with 487 career rebounds and 15th with 971 career points … coach Brooks Thompson needs one win to reach 100 for his UTSA career.
Texas State Bobcats (4-5, 0-0 WAC)
Matt Staff had another solid week as he helped lift Texas State to a 73-58 victory over UT Pan American ... Staff netted 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds, had two assists and two blocked shots ... he was 6-of-6 from the free throw line, and has made all 23 of his attempts this season ... Staff has now scored in double figures in all but one contest ... he is three blocks away from being tied third all-time on the Texas State career blocked shots chart ... Texas State snapped its two-game losing streak with a victory over UT Pan American ... the Bobcats held the Broncs to 58 points; the lowest by an opponent this season ... Texas State will begin a three-game road trip on Saturday, beginning with a visit to the University of Texas ... Staff is the Bobcats’ leading scorer with an average of 16.2 points per game.
Utah State Aggies (5-1, 0-0 WAC)
Utah State went 1-0 last week with an 86-57 win over Western Oregon at home ... USU is 5-1 to start a season for the second time in the last three years ... Utah State was playing its first game since junior guard Danny Berger collapsed in practice Tuesday from full cardiac arrest. Berger, who was released from Intermountain Medical Center in Murray Saturday morning, was on the bench with his teammates Saturday night ... Utah State improved to 181-16 under head coach Stew Morrill when holding its opponents under 60 points and 221-30 when scoring at least 70 points. USU also improved to 214-19 at home in this Morrill’s 15-year at the helm ... Utah State has posted a double-digit rebounding margin in all six games this season and Saturday night’s +22 rebounding margin was the Aggies’ largest of the season ... USU will continue play at Utah Valley on Saturday.