Daniel Mullings WAC POW

New Mexico State’s Daniel Mullings has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 20-26. The honor marks the first career WAC Player of the Week for Mullings.

Mullings, a freshman guard from Toronto, Ontario (Laurier), became only the third Aggie in school history and 13th player in WAC history to record a triple-double. Mullings scored 28 points, pulled down 12 rebounds and dished out 10 assists, all career high marks, in a 115-73 win over Hawai‘i on Feb. 23. Mullings is the first player to accomplish the feat since 1990 at NM State and only one of 12 players and the lone freshman to achieve a triple-double this season in the NCAA. He also tied a career high with five steals in the game. Mullings also set career-best marks for field goals made (11) and free throw attempts (9). In the home finale, Mullings scored 10 points for his 11th double-figure game of the year in a 79-68 win over San Jose State. He went 3-of-5 from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw and tallied five rebounds, four assists and two steals in the win over the Spartans.

On the week, Mullings averaged 19.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 3.5 steals per game. He shot 70.0 percent (14-of-20) from the field and 66.7 percent (10-of-15) from the free throw line.

Other nominees:

* Fresno State sophomore guard Kevin Olekaibe
* Idaho senior guard Deremy Geiger
* Louisiana Tech senior guard Trevor Gaskins
* Nevada senior forward Dario Hunt
* Utah State sophomore guard Preston Medlin

Tuesday's a.m. WAC compendium

Kurt Kragthorpe is joining the side that wants Utah to face its fellow in-state basketball opponents, USU specifically.

PTW agrees (for what that's worth). But please, no legislation. That's a bridge too far.

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CRAZYTOWN at the Aggie Alert Sports Trough MB offers a link to a video feature on New Mexico State signee Daniel Mullings.

That's it for now.

A solid Sunday edition of WAC items for you

The NetScouts site is reporting these former WAC players as landing work overseas;

*** Roderick Flemings (Hawaii), C.B. Canarias (Leb Oro), Spain

*** Jonathan Gibson (New Mexico State) Oyak Renault, Turkey

*** Petras Balocka (Hawaii) Lietuvos Rytas, Lithuania

*** Chris Oakes (San Jose State) Radnicki, Serbia

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UnderdogAggie at the SCOUT New Mexico State site Sports Trough message board is reporting a Canadian backcourter as having committed to the Aggies. Daniel Mullings is a 6-foot-1 combo guard out of Toronto. It seems unclear if he is to be on the roster this season but redshirting or arriving next year.

Here's Steven Luong writing about Mullings after a June all star game in Canada:

"...Daniel Mullings led the way for Team Red scoring 32 points and also playing some outstanding defense which included two spectacular run-down blocks in the fourth quarter on [Myck] Kabongo, and UNLV commit Grandy Glaze that was reminiscent of NBA all-star’s LeBron James’ signature defensive play.

“I love LeBron [James],” Mullings said. “His tenacity on defence, how he gets back on help defense, how he gets his team involved. I look up to him a lot.”

Both Mullings and Kabongo were able to score in very similar fashions. Making good use of their quick first steps, excellent ball handling skills and athleticism to get to the hoop consistently..." 

Here's another Mullings writeup on the same event:

"...The dark horse in this game was undoubtedly 6-2 Combo guard Daniel Mullings (2010). He entertained the crowd with his high flying act and showed his combination of speed and athleticism. Mullings was able to consistently get to the rim at will and finish over the trees as he filled up the basket for 32 points. It was a break out performance by Mullings which was unexpected by most due to the lack of buzz he received leading up to the game. The good news for college coaches is that he is still uncommitted and surprisingly only has one offer from New Mexico State..."

Here is some video on the young man.

Here is 6:26 YouTube video interview of Mullings.

Does anyone know if Coach Menzies has a scholarship open for the coming season, especially with the recent addition of Remi Barry?

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Fred Lewis offers a lengthy column about past and present WAC breakups here. It's always fascinating how quick some are to hit the message boards and criticize Karl Benson and others when what is happening in the background is unknown except to a select few. Instant analysis is a modern malady especially when performed by the uninformed.