USU’s Merrill name MW player of the week
After leading the Utah State men’s basketball team to wins over San Diego State and nationally ranked Nevada, junior guard Sam Merrill received the Mountain West Player of the Week award for this past week.
In those two games, Merrill averaged 24.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists while committing just one turnover between the two games. Merrill played all 40 minutes of both contests as well as all 45 minutes of the Aggies overtime win at Boise State on Feb. 23. His more prominent performance this past week came against the Wolf Pack on Saturday. In that game, Merrill scored a game-high 29 points with five rebounds and two assists while going 9 of 10 from the free throw line.
Merrill is the first Utah State player to be honored with the award and the 10th different athlete this season. Three players in the conference have received it more than once — Jordan Caroline (four times), Caleb Martin (three) and Jalen McDaniels (twice) — with Anthony Mathis, Braxton Huggins, Devin Watson, J.D. Paige, Joel Ntwambwe, Nico Carvacho and Noah Blackwell each being honored one time.
This is the first time any USU player has been recognized as player of the week since Koby McEwen on Feb. 5, 2018. In that week, McEwen helped the Aggies win back-to-back conference games for just the third time that season against Fresno State and New Mexico. His most notable performance was putting up a then-career high 31 points along with a career-high 13 rebounds with six assists.
Merrill is the fourth Aggie to receive a conference player of the week award in men’s basketball since the team joined the Mountain West in 2013-14. McEwen (two), Chris Smith (two) and David Collette (one) are the other three.
This season Merrill is averaging career-highs in points (20.5), rebounds (3.7), assists (4.0), steals (1.1), blocks (1.1) free throw attempts (5.6) and free throw percentage (.905). If he records 15 more assists this season, Merrill will become the only Aggie to have a season that finishes top 20 all-time in both points and assists.
Utah State will conclude its regular season on the road against Colorado State (12-17, 7-9) on Tuesday. A win against the Rams will secure a share of the Mountain West regular season title. If Nevada loses either at Air Force (13-15, 8-8) or at home against San Diego State (19-10, 11-5) and the Aggies win on Tuesday it will give USU the outright conference title.