Big West award pick ’em
In a little over an hour, the Big West Conference men’s hoops postseason awards will be announced. Hawaii figures to have a good chance at some of the biggest awards.
UPDATE: Here were the awards announced a few minutes ago by the conference. The breaking news write-up is here.
Player of the Year: Stefan Jankovic, Hawaii
Coach of the Year: Eran Ganot, Hawaii
Defensive Player of the Year: Mamadou Ndiaye, UC Irvine
Newcomer of the Year: Nick Faust, Long Beach State
Freshman of the Year: Khalil Ahmad, Cal State Fullerton
Sixth Man: Travis Hammonds, Long Beach State
Hustle Player: Darius Graham, UC Davis
First team
Roderick Bobbitt, Hawaii
Stefan Jankovic, Hawaii
Nick Faust, Long Beach State
Michael Bryson, UC Santa Barbara
Luke Nelson, UC Irvine
Mamadou Ndiaye, UC Irvine
Second team
Aaron Valdes, Hawaii
Alex Young, UC Irvine
Josh Fox, UC Davis
Jaylen Bland, UC Riverside
Justin Bibbins, Long Beach State
Honorable mention
Khalil Ahmad, Cal State Fullerton
Eric Childress, UC Santa Barbara
Tre’ Coggins, Cal State Fullerton
Darius Graham, UC Davis
Secean Johnson, UC Riverside
Gabe Levin, Long Beach State
David Nwaba, Cal Poly
Kendall Smith, Cal State Northridge
Gabe Vincent, UC Santa Barbara
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Here’s my picks. Note: This is for fun only, as the league’s nine coaches do the entirety of the voting. I’ll update the actual awards here once they’re released.
Player of the Year: Stefan Jankovic, Hawaii
Coach of the Year: Eran Ganot, Hawaii
Newcomer of the Year: Nick Faust, Long Beach State
Freshman of the Year: Khalil Ahmad, Cal State Fullerton
Defensive Player of the Year: Mamadou Ndiaye, UC Irvine
First team:
Stefan Jankovic, F, Hawaii
Roderick Bobbitt, G, Hawaii
Aaron Valdes, G/F, Hawaii
Michael Bryson, F, UC Santa Barbara
Luke Nelson, G, UC Irvine
Nick Faust, G, Long Beach State
Second team:
Justin Bibbins, G, Long Beach State
Jaylen Bland, G, UC Riverside
Josh Fox, F, UC Davis
Mamadou Ndiaye, C, UC Irvine
Gabe Vincent, G, UC Santa Barbara
There’s also some other specialty awards like hustle player, but I’m taking a pass on predicting that.
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The women’s awards were announced first Monday morning. For Hawaii, Destiny King was named a first-teamer, and Ashleigh Karaitiana and Megan Huff were named second-teamers. Huff won the BWC Sixth Player award for the second year in a row, marking the fourth straight year a UH player took that specialty honor.
Rainbow Wahine coach Laura Beeman seemed excited about it just as her team was about to fly out for the mainland.
Yes!!!! https://t.co/brGfhpG9SA
— Laura Beeman (@LauraBeeman) March 7, 2016
The exclusion of Q is hurtful. As a fan through the good and bad times going back to Frank Arnold even further to Coach Rocha, Q is the quintessential team guy! He does everything the box doesn’t show. Hustle, defensive pressure , he is what all players love about this game. He plays all out every night. I know he’s not thrilled sitting but when the five guys that are in are doing it, he’s up cheering with the 5-0 guys. Q you deserve better! Glad to have had the chance to watch you do your thing! I’m sure you’ll find success in whatever you end up doing! Mahalo brother Q!
I get the impression that Quincy is a good guy, too.
His ability to get to the basket is pretty remarkable. He just doesn’t finish with the same regularity as ex-Bow Isaac Fleming.
Quincy is an easy guy to root for.
The guy has speed. If only he could harness that speed better. I wish he had one more year. He did squat under Gib Arnold, because Arnold kept yanking him out of the game if he made a mistake.
Benjy Taylor infused Smith and Mike Thomas with self-confidence.
Thank you, J. for giving me something to respond, too.
I go back to Larry Little.
I remember Brad Pineau. I should have been rooting for St. Mary’s, but I’m a Gonzaga fan.