Three Aggies take home four MWC awards
The Utah State men’s basketball team took home four of the possible six postseason awards for the Mountain West Conference. Head coach Craig Smith, junior guard Sam Merrill, and freshman center Neemias Queta all received honors as voted on by the head coaches in the conference.
Smith received Coach of the Year with Neemias Queta taking home not just Freshman of the Year, but Defensive Player of the Year as well. Sam Merrill won a close three-way race with Nevada’s Caleb Martin and Jordan Caroline for the Player of the Year award.
Sam Merrill in action against San Diego State. The junior averaged 29.5 points in the last four games of the season – Photo by Savy Knapp
Merrill finished second in the Mountain West in scoring at 21.0 points per game. He also finished second in PER (25.2), fourth in offensive rating (127.7) and sixth in assists per game (4.1). In the last four games of the regular season, the junior guard averaged 29.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He also never left the floor in any of those four games which included two overtime contests.
Six other Aggies in history have won conference player of the year, though Merrill is the first in the Mountain West era. Dean Hunger (1980 Big West), Greg Grant (1986 Big West), Eric Franson (1995 Big West), Jaycee Carroll (2008 WAC), Gary Wilkinson (2009 WAC) and Tai Wesley (2011 WAC) are the other POY winners.
Queta, who averaged 11.6 points and 8.8 rebounds in his freshman campaign, led the conference in blocks by a wide margin. He averaged 2.4 rejections per game (next closest was 1.6 by Nate Grimes). The freshman center also led the league in defensive rating (88.0), defensive box plus/minus (8.1) and was third in defensive win shares (2.2, slightly trailing the 2.3 of Martin and Caroline).
Neemias Queta surveys the San Diego State defense in the Aggies’ 70-54 win over the Aztecs – Photo by Savy Knapp
Both Queta and Merrill were also given recognition with selections to the All-Conference teams. Merrill was selected to be on the First Team All-Conference West with Queta getting on the Second Team and All-Defensive teams.
Since joining the conference at the start of the 2013-14 season, only one player has received one of the six individual awards. Koby McEwen received Freshman of the Year honors in 2016-17 after averaging 14.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in his first year at USU.
Merrill — who averaged career-highs in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks — became the first Aggie to get on the First Team. Previously, Jalen Moore had climbed the highest on the Mountain West All-Conference ladder by being placed on the Second Team in 2014-15. The last First Team selection any Aggie got was Preston Medlin, a WAC First Team awardee in 2012.
Craig Smith at the last home game of his first year as coach – Photo by Iain Laurence
Smith became the fourth USU coach to be given coach of the year honors. Rod Tueller, Larry Eustachy and Stew Morrill are the other three winners across the program’s time in the Big West and WAC. Smith’s 25 wins are the most all-time by a first-year head coach at Utah State. He also became the first-ever USU coach to win a regular season Mountain West title.
On Monday, the Mountain West media members announced their selections for each of these awards, mirroring the decisions of the MW coaches who voted for the official awards. Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association honored Smith, Merrill and Queta as part of the USBWA’s District VIII. Smith received the District VIII Coach of the Year award with Merrill and Queta being All-District VIII First Team selections. District VIII covers schools in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
All three of these individuals will be in action on Thursday with Utah State taking on the winner of the first-round matchup between New Mexico and Wyoming.