Monday, January 25, 2010

Monday's WAC news, notes and links

As previously known, here's next season's point for Boise State:

Future Bronco Is A Floor Leader
Jared Crews
BroncoCountry
January 24, 2010

Hill College PG Chris Kupets (Hillsboro, TX) signed with Boise State in the early signing period following his transfer from East Carolina. The future Bronco will have two years of eligibility left once he arrives on the Boise State campus and his goal is to simply be a pure PG on the court. "I just want to be the best teammate and PG I can be," he said. "Just simply make the team better," he added...
Go here for the remainder and a Scout sub is required.

Here is an earlier article from June 2008 about Kupets signing with East Carolina. Here is an article from his high school days in Georgia.

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Nick Jezierny has a preview of the Boise State - Idaho matchup tonight. Can BSU finally nab a WAC win? Idaho is the host and really needs to take this one in order to achieve a better placement for the WAC tourney. He offers a second article featuring the individual matchups here.

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It was but one viewing so it's both difficult and dangerous to extrapolate about a team and its players but here goes anyway. After viewing the New Mexico State - San Jose State game Saturday night, this is what we witnessed:

* Jahmar Young is a great jumpshooter, an NBA talent whose length allows him to get his shot off even from a veritable standstill. He does still need some added bulk and we don't recall much in the way of attempts to drive and score or drive and dish but his range and accuracy will land him a spot in The League. Is it after this season or the next one?

* The first half strategy of having Wendell McKines dribble-drive towards the paint, draw defenders and kick a short pass to a teammate for an open jumper, was successful. McKines totaled three assists for the game and our guess is he earned them all in the initial period. We don't know why -- a change in the defense? a different offensive focus? -- but that design was absent in the second 20 minutes. What predominated offensively for the Aggies in the second half was a couple of dribbles and quick jump shots, which were contested more often than not. McKines was absent for some of that time due to foul trouble.

* Hernst Laroche was very impressive -- 13 points, four assists and four boards, with zero turnovers -- and, while not necessarily a creator, he just may be the most valuable point in the WAC.

* Hamidu Rahman wasn't able to take advantage of his bulk inside partly because of San Jose State's zone but also due to Chris Oakes' length. Rahman shot 1-7 on the night and had difficulty maneuvering his body for a solid shot. He went 5-6 on last season's visit to San Jose.

* Jonathan Gibson took the honors for forced shots on the night. Unlike Young, he doesn't have the length to get good looks on his own creation and his attempts weren't falling.

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Adrian Oliver is the WAC POY:

San Jose State’s Adrian Oliver has been named the Verizon Wireless Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 18-24. The honor marks the second career WAC Player of the Week award for Oliver.

Oliver, a junior guard from Modesto, CA, led San Jose State to a 2-0 record last week with home wins over Louisiana Tech (87-76) and New Mexico State (93-84). With the two wins, SJSU improves to 4-3 in WAC play for the first time since 1999.

Against Louisiana Tech, Oliver scored a career-high 39 points with five assists, four rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Oliver connected on 12-of-19 shots from the field against the Bulldogs, including a 3-of-5 clip from long range and a 12-of-12 mark from the free throw line. Oliver then tallied 22 points with five assists, three rebounds and a pair of steals in the victory over NM State. The performance marked his fourth-straight 20-plus point game as San Jose State registered its highest point total against a Division I opponent since 1996.

On the week, Oliver averaged 30.5 points, 5.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game. He shot 54.3 percent (19-of-35) from the field, 44.4 percent (4-of-9) from three-point range and was 19-of-20 from the free throw line.

Other nominees:

* Fresno State freshman center Greg Smith
* Idaho senior guard Kashif Watson
* Louisiana Tech senior forward Magnum Rolle
* Nevada sophomore forward Luke Babbitt
* New Mexico State junior guard Jahmar Young
* Utah State senior guard Jared Quayle

2 comments:

Patrick H said...

Kevin, I'm sure you meant that Oliver is WAC POW not POY. Babbitt has pretty much locked up WAC POY unless he gets injured, don't you think?

Kevin McCarthy said...

Yikes. You know what Freud would say. I wish I could claim that the 'Y' and 'W' keys were side by side but that excuse isn't available.

Yes, it certainly should have been a 'W' as I agree with you that LB is currently the frontrunner for the top player in the WAC. I don't see how a different case can be made.