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Mountain West Wire’s Player of The Year Watch List: Week Eight
Take A Look At the Best Performances Around the Mountain West In Week Eight.
Contact/Follow @HardwoodTalk & @MWCwire
Who is in the running for Player of the Year? The list welcomes three new faces and the board has a new leader.
The staff at the Mountain West Wire wanted to do something a little different this year. We are going to keep track of the top performers from teams around the Mountain West throughout the year and vote on who had the best performances that week.
How it works description now at the bottom of the article
The order for the eighth week is as follows:
1. Derrick Alston Jr, junior guard Boise State (5 Points)
32 Points, 2 Rebounds and 6 Assists against Portland
23 Points, 9 Rebounds and 6 Assists against UTEP
17 Points, 5 Assists and 3 Rebounds against CSUN
Derrick Alston Jr. has made the jump in production we all hoped he would going into his junior season in Boise. After averaging 24 points a game this past week while the Broncos played in the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu and a home game this past weekend against CSUN, Alston has his team riding a three-game winning streak and nestled in sixth place in the Mountain West at 9-5 (1-1 MW).
Alston has made three past appearances in our top-five but hasn’t had a first place finish until now. That coupled with his consistency throughout the season has him in first place on our big board with 14 points total. He is a talented player with professional attributes but has been forced into a go-to scorer role that has him taking 14.7 field goal attempts a game (a conference-high). He can certainly score, but as a 6-9 guard, he also has a playmaking ability that is overlooked by the need to knock down shots.
Some help arrived at semester break, which could help distribute the offensive burden a bit and we should see the same consistent play from Alston Jr. that we have seen to thus far, but keep an eye on his ability to facilitate offense for others going forward. As it will be needed if the Broncos hope to break into the top-five of the conference and challenge the current big 3.
2. Malachi Flynn, junior guard San Diego State (4 Points):
14 Points, 7 Assists, 5 Steals and 5 Rebounds against Cal Poly
3. Orlando Robinson, freshman forward Fresno State (3 Points):
24 Points, 7 Rebounds and 2 Blocks against San Francisco
27 Points, 5 Rebounds and 5 Blocks against UC-Riverside
4. Corey Manigault, senior forward New Mexico (2 Points):
20 Points, 11 Rebounds and 4 Steals against UC Davis
5. Abu Kigab, junior forward Boise State (1 Point):
3 Points, 2 Assists and 1 Steal against Portland
11 Points and 10 Rebounds against UTEP
33 Points and 11 Rebounds against CSUN
Past Weeks:
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3| Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7
Current Overall Point Totals:
Derrick Alston Jr, junior guard BSU (14 Points)
JaQuan Lyle, senior guard UNM (11 Points)
Sam Merrill, senior guard USU (11 Points)
Malachi Flynn, junior guard San Diego State (9 Points)
Jalen Harris, junior guard Nevada (9 Points)
Nico Carvacho, senior center CSU (7 Points)
Hunter Maldonado, sophomore guard Wyoming (7 Points)
Jazz Johnson, senior guard Nevada (6 Points)
Alphonso Anderson, junior guard USU (5 Points)
Carlton Bragg Jr., senior forward New Mexico (5 Points)
Lindsey Drew, senior guard Nevada (5 Points)
Justinian Jessup, senior guard Boise State (5 Points)
Justin Bean, sophomore forward USU (4 Points)
Amauri Hardy, junior guard UNLV (4 Points)
Isaiah Stevens, freshman guard Colorado State (4 Points)
Orlando Robinson, freshman forward Fresno State (3 Points)
Roderick “RJ” Williams, senior forward Boise State (3 Points)
Corey Manigault, senior forward New Mexico (2 Points):
Jordan Schakel, junior guard SDSU (2 Points)
Donnie Tillman, junior forward UNLV (2 Points)
Abu Kigab, junior forward Boise State (1 Point):
How It Works:
Each person will award 15 points in total to five players and should award it as so:
1st place (Player of the week): 5 pts
2nd place: 4 pts
3rd place: 3 pts
4th place: 2 pts
5th place: 1 pt
The player with the most points total will be our player of the week and we will keep track of the point totals every week so that the player who has the most at the end of the year will receive the Mountain West Wire Player of the Year award. Just copy the players below and type your names above it like we do for the pick them docs we get and award your points.
Now some guys made the list and others didn’t. A big thing to think about was consistency throughout the week. Something that hurt some guys was having a decent game one day and a bad one the other day. Guys who made the list had a great game one day and a good one on other days, or good games both days.
This column will come out on Sunday nights or Monday mornings depending on how late some games finish on Sundays.
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