Boise State basketball has the WAC tourney's No. 2 seed. Will they have any WAC awards?
by Kevan Lee on Mar 5, 2011 7:28 AM PST
in Boise State basketball
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The Boise State men's basketball team finishes the regular season tonight, having already clinched the WAC tournament's No. 2 seed and the two byes that come with it. Not bad for a team that lost six of seven during the conference schedule. Makes me feel bad for kind of giving up on them for a while.
With the Broncos officially the second-best team in the WAC, what kind of awards can Boise State players and coaches expect to receive from the conference media? Players of the Year, All-WAC teams, and more will be announced in the coming days. Read on for the Boise State candidates deserving of an honor or two, as well as a preview of tonight's game.
Tonight's game:
vs. San Jose State, 7:05 p.m. MT
Vote La'Shard Anderson for WAC Player of the Year
Anderson clearly is the straw that stirs the drink on the Boise State basketball team. He's the best guard in the conference, he single-handedly won three or four of the games in the Broncos' current six game winning streak, and he leads the league in steals and is second in assists. Boise State has not had a player like Anderson since ... who? Koby Karl? Reggie Larry? Chris Childs? I don't mean to go all Idaho Statesman here, but La'Shard Anderson may be the greatest player in the history of Boise State basketball. Or all basketball. I'm pretty high on him right now.
Likely winner: Adrian Oliver, San Jose State (averages 24 points per)
Vote Leon Rice for WAC Coach of the Year
In Rice's first season, his team jumped out to a 6-0 start, which was amazing, and then went on a 1-and-6 swoon deep in the heart of conference play, which was not so amazing. Whatever Rice did to pull the Broncos out of that funk and set them on the path to winning six in a row is deserving of Coach of the Year honors. I'm thinking it was either thinly veiled threats or motivational posters.
Likely winner: Stew Morrill, Utah State
Vote Ryan Watkins for WAC Freshman of the Year
Watkins has started all 15 of the Broncos' WAC games and has occasionally been the only inside presence the Broncos can count on. The true freshman shoots a team leading 50 percent from the field, and averages five points and three rebounds per night.
Likely winner: Deonte Burton, Nevada
Vote La'Shard Anderson to the All-WAC first team
Pretty much everyone who watches WAC basketball is in agreement that Anderson is a shoo-in for first-team honors. Here is the group of five that most people expect to see on the first-team:
- G Adrian Oliver, San Jose State
- F Tai Wesley, Utah State
- G La'Shard Anderson, Boise State
- F Troy Gillenwater, New Mexico State
- F Dario Hunt, Nevada
Tonight's game
Tonight's game against San Jose State means nothing for the Broncos as far as the WAC tournament is concerned, so let it fly, Paul Noonan. If you're looking for storylines, well, it might be fun to watch SJSU's Adrian Oliver play, and a SJSU win could mean that the Spartans would be on Boise State's side of the bracket come tournament time. Oh and there's this: Boise State's last game against SJSU went into quadruple overtime. Even half as many overtimes would be exciting.
Your turn
What postseason awards do you think the Broncos will win? Is Leon Rice's 6-game WAC winning streak more impressive than Stew Morrill's 14-1 WAC record? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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going to the game tonight.
anyone else?
also may try for a jeron autograph. again. anyone else?
12 years in a row. 22-17-1 overall record.
Suck it Vandals
Twitter: @damienbsu
"[O]ne play can win a game but one play cannot lose a game." - Coach Petersen
Anderson is a GREAT player.
I think Rice should beat out Morrill. Stew’s team is full of 4 and 5 year players. His team is doing what everyone said they should do, and they lost to Idaho. Major point deduction for that. Rice came in this year with a team many picked to be very bad, and last or close to it in the WAC. They lost a few close ones, and played a few really bad games. But overall they are a pretty good team this year, and 2nd in the WAC, Holy Cow. Rice needs to be coach of the year.
"Every Damn Day."- Coach Pete
Agreed...
I looked it up. WAC Coaches Preseason Poll had Boise State at 4 and Media Preseason had Boise State at 6. To finish 2nd is a major accomplishment and has to reflect positively on Rice’s ability as a coach.
See you there tonight..
Bringing the whole famn damily! Pumped up for the tourney next weekend, and spring ball on Monday. The world makes sense again.
Rice has to win
and La’Shard should win. If it were an MVP instead of a POY then Anderson would ave it locked up.
Let’s hope for a UNR win so Idaho is favored to play us in the semis!
"You don't play against opponents. You play against the game..." - Bobby Knight
IMO
I’m not sure if its harder to exceed expectations like Rice has, though I would argue the returning talent for BSU was better than most WAC teams or if its harder to consistently win with a bullseye on your back like Utah State has for four years and still lost a combined 5 (five!) conference games in three years.
I think Rice deserves COTY over Morrill
No knock on Utah St’s season, but it was to be expected. I think my vote for player of the year might have to go to Wesley as much as it pains me to say, but you can make a strong case for Anderson since he’s carried his team without the supporting cast Wesley has, and even though Oliver has the pts per his team still didnt do much because of it.
good game last night.
thought it didn’t seem like SJSU was trying all that hard. the production value was pretty good. non-basketball-wise. I was pleasantly surprised that i was entertained during the timeouts. the halftime “show” was just trophy presentations to the champions over the last weekend, but i thought it was pretty neat.
good for the team and good for Rice to end on a high note.
12 years in a row. 22-17-1 overall record.
Suck it Vandals
Twitter: @damienbsu
"[O]ne play can win a game but one play cannot lose a game." - Coach Petersen
Stew has done a great job, but...
Like I pointed out on BroncoCountry, his 2010-2011 campaign went exactly as expected. As much as I would have loved to see Coach Rice win WAC COTY, I think that title belonged to Hawaii’s Gib Arnold. Taking a team that finished 9th place in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 and making them into the 5th overall seed in the tournament with the 3rd best record in the WAC? That’s impressive considering how untalented Hawaii is. Hawaii played USU better in Logan that most teams too(74-66 Aggies), and nearly beat them in Hawaii too(89-84 2OT Aggies). As a team that hadn’t sniffed the WAC tournament since 2008, UH has no business being where they are right now.
I don’t see them advancing very far this upcoming week, but I think Arnold’s feat with the UH b-ball team outweighs Morrill’s expected season.
"Being realistic is the most commonly traveled path to mediocrity." - Will Smith
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2012 Boise State Football Schedule
@ Michigan State  |
Fri 08/31 | 6:00 p.m. MT |
| Miami (OH) | Sat 09/15 | 2:00 p.m. MT |
| BYU |
Thu 09/20 | TBA |
| @ New Mexico | Sat 09/29 | TBA |
| @ Southern Miss | Sat 10/06 | TBA |
| Fresno State | Sat 10/13 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| UNLV | Sat 10/20 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| @ Wyoming |
Sat 10/27 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| San Diego State | Sat 11/03 | 8:30 p.m. MT |
| @ Hawaii | Sat 11/10 | 5:00 p.m. MT |
| Colorado St. | Sat 11/17 | 1:30 p.m. MT |
| @ Nevada | Sat 12/1 | TBA |
