USU’s Merrill wins MW Player of the Week

For the second time this season and third of his career, Utah State senior guard Sam Merrill will take home Mountain West Player of the Week as announced by the conference Monday morning. Merrill own the award for the week of Dec. 23 this season and the week of March 4 in the 2018-19 season.

Merrill led the Aggies to two straight wins this past week — part of four straight now — over Colorado State and Fresno State. For the week, Merrill led the team in points (28.0 per game) and assists (4.5), and was third in rebounds (4.0). Against the Rams, Merrill’s 32 set a season-high which pushed him past 2,000 career points and into third all-time at USU in that category. His now 2,052 point total is 75 behind Greg Grant (2,127), the 1980s-era star big man, and 470 behind all-time program leader Jaycee Carroll (2,522).

Pullin' THE TRIGGER‼️@smerrill05#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/owsDe3JkoF

— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 16, 2020

In addition to career points, Merrill is moving up the charts in assists and steals. His 456 assists are second all-time, bested only by the 562 tallied by Oscar Williams and Merrill’s 120 steals is eighth all-time.

The Aggies as a team struggled on offense for a notable portion of the season, as did Merrill who shot just 40.7 percent overall in the first 19 games of the season. Through those 19 games, the senior’s points per game average was 17.5, down nearly three-and-a-half points from his 2018-19 MW Player of the Year campaign (20.9). Since Jan. 25, however, Merrill’s scoring is up to 21.6 per night, along with 5.1 assists, with shooting numbers of 53.9 percent overall, 48.9 percent from 3-point range and 91.4 percent on free throws. This past week, his overall shooting (60.6) and 3-point shooting (56.3) were even higher while also attempting more shots per game (16.5) than his season average prior to that (12.4).

Alongside Merrill’s own personal resurgence back to his previous Player of the Year form, Utah State (21-7, 10-5) has surged as a team, winning six of seven games since Jan. 25, the one loss being on the road against No. 4 San Diego State. The Aggies are currently in sole possession of second place in the Mountain West with three games left to play and own tiebreakers against the two teams a half game below them, Nevada (9-5 in conference play) and Colorado State (9-5), having swept both teams this season.

Twitter: @thejwalk67