My final All-MWC team predictions.......

[cougjunkie]

The announcement is coming today at 2pm. Here are my final predictions:

Player of the Year: Luke Nevill: Utah
Defensive Player of the Year: Luke Nevill: Utah
6th Man of the year: Chad Toppert: UNM
Freshman of the year: Afam Muojeke: Wyo
Newcomer of the year: Sean Ogirri: Wyo
Coach of the Year: Jim Boylen: Utah

1st team:
Luke Nevill: Utah
Tony Dandridge: New Mexico
Lee Cummard: BYU
Lorenzo Wade: SDSU
Brandon Ewing: Wyoming
(As usual the MWC rewards seniors, I think Jimmer belongs over Wade)

2nd team:
Daniel Faris: UNM
Kyle Spain: SDSU
Jonathan Tavernari: BYU
Jimmer Fredette: BYU
Wink Adams: UNLV

3rd team
Kevin Langford: TCU
Andrew Henke: AFA
Sean Ogirri: Wyo
Lawrence Borha: Utah
Trevon Willis: UNLV

[DrumNFeather]

I mostly agree with you.

I think that if Green gets the 6th man, he might also land himself on the second team...third team at worst. He and Bohra have played their way into consideration.

I also think that Zvonko Buljion from TCU is a strong candidate for newcomer of the year.

Jason Washburn is a shoe-in for freshmen of the year. Sure, he didn't play, but everyone knows who he is and many already dislike him. Solid.

[cougjunkie]

I mostly agree with you.

I think that if Green gets the 6th man, he might also land himself on the second team...third team at worst. He and Bohra have played their way into consideration.

I also think that Zvonko Buljion from TCU is a strong candidate for newcomer of the year.

Jason Washburn is a shoe-in for freshmen of the year. Sure, he didn't play, but everyone knows who he is and many already dislike him. Solid.

The only reason I dont see Green getting 6th man (although Joe Cravens said he did vote for him over Toppert) is because the MWC likes to spread the awards around a bit (unless you are New Mexico) and Utah would sweep just about every category but newcomer of the year.

[Hot Lunch]

Does Boylen really deserve to be Coach of the Year?

Utah should at least share the title with the best big man in the conference. He has a 7'2 player with NBA talent in a league that has no big men.

Aren't their teams that don't even have a guy taller than 6'8 on their roster?

[il Padrino Ute]

Does Boylen really deserve to be Coach of the Year?

Utah should at least share the title with the best big man in the conference. He has a 7'2 player with NBA talent in a league that has no big men.

Aren't their teams that don't even have a guy taller than 6'8 on their roster?

If you look at what he's done with pretty much the same core players that Giacoletti had two years ago, then yes, he deserves COY. More simply stated - where would Utah be with Giac as coach today?

[RockyBalboa]

If you look at what he's done with pretty much the same core players that Giacoletti had two years ago, then yes, he deserves COY. More simply stated - where would Utah be with Giac as coach today?

We really don't know where they'd be with Giac as head coach. After all he was able to take a different team with another Big Center and the 1st pick in the draft to the Sweet Sixteen.

BTW - I'm not arguing Boylen shouldn't be coach of the year, just playing a little devil's advocate.

Realistically my guess is they'd have a winning record this year with Giac at the helm, but he wouldn't have squeezed a title out of them like Boylen did.

And I could be wrong, but next year I think Utah will really struggle.

[DrumNFeather]

Does Boylen really deserve to be Coach of the Year?

Utah should at least share the title with the best big man in the conference. He has a 7'2 player with NBA talent in a league that has no big men.

Aren't their teams that don't even have a guy taller than 6'8 on their roster?

The thing about Nevill is that nobody really knew what he would do this year. We started to see flashes last year but they were few and far between. He played his way into being the POY and DPOY this year and I think a lot of that can be attributed to Boylen.

Boylen was also able to maximize the abilities of guys like Green, Kepkay and Bohra.

At the beginning of the season, many viewed the Utes as a middle of the road MWC team capping out at 17, maybe 18 wins and perhaps an NIT bid. He's now got them as an NCAA lock prior to the MWC tourney.

For my money, he is the COY, but I will say that I think there have been some fantastic coaching jobs in conference this year.

[il Padrino Ute]

We really don't know where they'd be with Giac as head coach. After all he was able to take a different team with another Big Center and the 1st pick in the draft to the Sweet Sixteen.

BTW - I'm not arguing Boylen shouldn't be coach of the year, just playing a little devil's advocate.

Realistically my guess is they'd have a winning record this year with Giac at the helm, but he wouldn't have squeezed a title out of them like Boylen did.

You make a fair point about Giac's first year, though the difference here would be that Bogut was considered the best player in the country and Neville is nowhere near that level. Marc Jackson was also key and Utah doesn't have anyone as good as Jackson was at the PG right now.

Also, Utah got progressively worse under Giacoletti, so we don't know if the team would have a winning record, as the pattern was each season worse than the last.

Whether Utah struggles next year remains to be seen, but so far, Boylens's teams have been improving.

[DrumNFeather]

In the interest of full disclosure, here's what the MWC preseason awards were:

Preseason All-MWC Team
Lee Cummard, Sr., G, BYU
Lorrenzo Wade, Sr., F, San Diego State
Wink Adams, Sr., G, UNLV
Luke Nevill, Sr., C, Utah
Brandon Ewing, Sr., G, Wyoming

Preseason Co-Players of the Year
Lee Cummard, Sr., G, BYU
Wink Adams, Sr., G, UNLV

Preseason Newcomer of the Year
Tre'Von Willis, So., G, UNLV

Preseason Freshman of the Year
Phillip McDonald, G, New Mexico

[Hot Lunch]

Boylen was also able to maximize the abilities of guys like Green, Kepkay and Bohra.

At the beginning of the season, many viewed the Utes as a middle of the road MWC team capping out at 17, maybe 18 wins and perhaps an NIT bid. He's now got them as an NCAA lock prior to the MWC tourney.

For my money, he is the COY, but I will say that I think there have been some fantastic coaching jobs in conference this year.

3 more seniors. So the best player int he conference that is a 7 footer and 3 of their others biggest contributes this year are seniors as well. He had more to work with than people want to admit.

I am not saying he shouldn't be. Just playing devil's advocate like Rocky. I don't think he is a lock like many think. Their are others that deserve the honor as well that didn't have what Boylen had to work with this year.

[UtahDan]

3 more seniors. So the best player int he conference that is a 7 footer and 3 of their others biggest contributes this year are seniors as well. He had more to work with than people want to admit.

I am not saying he shouldn't be. Just playing devil's advocate like Rocky. I don't think he is a lock like many think. Their are others that deserve the honor as well that didn't have what Boylen had to work with this year.

What you are saying is that there was always a lot of talent there and Giacoletti just underachieved with it. Someone competent shows up and instantly you see the talent bare fruit. I don't agree. We have Luke Nevill and......pretty average group after that. We don't have three guys in the first two teams like BYU does this year. I don't think that Borha, Green and Kepkay were super talents just waiting for the chance to show it. I think they are very average college players, and below average historically for Utah, who Boylen maximized.

I just don't see the evidence that any of those guys were huge underachievers up until now. Maybe not maximizing, but not underachieving based on talent level.

[cougjunkie]

What you are saying is that there was always a lot of talent there and Giacoletti just underachieved with it. Someone competent shows up and instantly you see the talent bare fruit. I don't agree. We have Luke Nevill and......pretty average group after that. We don't have three guys in the first two teams like BYU does this year. I don't think that Borha, Green and Kepkay were super talents just waiting for the chance to show it. I think they are very average college players, and below average historically for Utah, who Boylen maximized.

I just don't see the evidence that any of those guys were huge underachievers up until now. Maybe not maximizing, but not underachieving based on talent level.

This is all true but Boylen is not in a battle for COY with Dave Rose, he is battling Steve Alford who may have had less to work with then even Boylen. Dandridge is a sure fire first teamer but he is not Nevill. After that they have Faris who only averaged 12 per game in conference play (similar to Borha and Kepkay) and then Toppert who is a Shaun Green clone.

[Donuthole]

Wade out, Ewing in? Interesting. Congrats to Lee and Jimmer.

[cougjunkie]

Official results are in:

First team
Jimmer Fredette
Brandon Ewing
Lee Cummard
Tony Dandridge
Luke Nevill

Second Team
Kyle Spain
Kevin Langford
Wink Adams
Lorenzo Wade
Daniel Faris


Third team
Marcus Walker
Richie Williams
Lawrence Borha
Rene Rougeau
Jonathan Tavernari

Newcomer of the Year: Zuljan: TCU
Freshman of the year: Muojeke: Wyo
Sixth Man: Shaun Green: Utah
Defensive Player of the year: Nevill
Player of the year: Luke Nevill

All Defense team:

Emery
Williams
Borha
Rougeau
Neville

[cougjunkie]

We have Luke Nevill and......pretty average group after that.

With the MWC awards being announced you may want to retract this statement.

You have the player of the year in Nevill. Borha was on the all defense team as was Nevill, Nevill was the defensive player of the year, Shaun Green was the 6th man of the year. Borha was a third team all conference player. Also Utah has 4 honorable mention players (Drca, Kepkay, Brown and Green) which is more than any other team.

The media obviously agrees as Steve Alford was named coach of the year.