Merrill and Queta in conversation for NCAA positional awards
It’s officially preseason award list season for college basketball and the first round of predictions is upon us. Normally, Utah State sits out this portion of the offseason, watching from afar as other programs and players get the lion’s share of recognition. This year, it’s the Aggies’ turn.
Senior guard Sam Merrill and sophomore center Neemias Queta both made names for themselves with stellar 2018-19 seasons with the former winning Mountain West Player of the Year and the latter taking home Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the year in the MW. With both returning, it was only natural that such award-winning talent would attract more potential awards.
Andy Katz, a correspondent for NCAA.com, spent a good chunk of last week ranking his top candidates for each of the major positional awards. Merrill came in as the fifth-best candidate for the Jerry West award (given to shooting guards) while Queta came in at 10th for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar award (for centers).
“(Merrill) enters this season as the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year,” Katz said. “He’s been a big-time talent for the Aggies — the Aggies are going to be a top-25 team, at least they are for me, I would think they would be for everyone else. And Merrill’s going to be the guy to watch out west or one of the top players at his position.”
Matthew Halton USU guard Sam Merrill drives toward the basket against Air Force on Saturday, Jan. 5 in the Dee Glen Spectrum Arena in Logan, Utah. The Aggies beat the Falcons 79-62 — Photo by Matthew Halton.
Any improvement on Merrill’s part could easily net the Bountiful native a second straight conference POY award. He already led the MW in overall points (731) in 2018-19 and was the only player in the NCAA overall to average 20-plus points while shooting at least 46 percent overall, 37 percent from three and above 90 percent on free throws last year. Merrill was also the only player in the country to eclipse 20 points, four assists and commit fewer than two turnovers per game.
Throw in a potentially high AP poll ranking for Utah State and wins in March Madness to Merrill’s resume and the prospect of USU’s first-ever West Award winner would be far from impossible.
Katz didn’t have quite as much to say about Queta, but noted in those how big his return is for the Aggies.
“Queta could have gone and stayed in the NBA, decided to come back,” Katz said. “Real major, major pick up in recruiting — recruiting your own player back — for Utah State.”
The bigman from Portugal didn’t put up gaudy stats in his freshman season. His 11.8 points ranked 685th nation-wide and the 8.9 rebounds he reeled in per night came in at a merely respectable 43rd among all NCAA players. Where the freshman truly shined was on the defensive end, especially in his rim protection.
Neemias Queta defends a shot against Weber State at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Saturday, Dec. 8. The Aggies won 76-67 —Photo by Megan Nielsen
During the season, Queta swatted away 84 shots, good for 10th-best among all shot-blockers and forced perhaps twice that same number of field goal attempts into misses without the need to personally escort them away from the basket by simply being near the shot-taker. Queta’s rim-protecting prowess was strongly reflected in advanced stats like defensive rating, defensive win shares and defensive box plus/minus. He led the Mountain West in each of those metrics (and in blocks and block percentage) and ranked 15th, 32nd and ninth respectively in the nation in those same categories.
All of that monstrous defensive presence didn’t just impact opposing players, it seeped into the play of Queta’s Aggie teammates as well. Utah State finished the season ranked 32nd in team defensive rating, but were absolutely dominant in defensive field goal percentage. Opponents of the Aggies made just 39.3 percent of their shots (the 10th-best mark in the nation) and a paltry 42.1 percent of 2-point shots (fourth-best overall).
The combination of Queta and Merrill may become the greatest duo in Aggie history. No other tandem in USU history won end of season awards in the same year like Merrill and Queta did. The two led the Aggies to its first-ever MW regular season and conference tournament title along with the highest NCAA Tournament seed in program history.