Saturday, January 30, 2010

An overlooked All-WAC player prediction

We were surprised at the time but charitably thought that some of the WAC coaches knew more than we did on the subject. Now, it's clear -- whoever they were as we assume some got it right -- they missed the proverbial boat at least by one.

What are we talking about?

Check out the pre-season predictions for WAC first and second teams as done by the head coaches:

Preseason Coaches All-WAC Teams

First Team

Luke Babbitt, So., F, Nevada
Mac Hopson, Sr., G, Idaho
Armon Johnson, Jr., G, Nevada
Jared Quayle, Sr., G, Utah State
Jahmar Young, Jr., G, New Mexico State

Second Team

Roderick Flemings, Sr., F, Hawai
Paul George, So., G/F, Fresno State
Kyle Gibson, Sr., G, Louisiana Tech
Sylvester Seay, Sr., F, Fresno State
Tai Wesley, Jr., F, Utah State

The placement can be argued but did you notice who is missing?

SJSU's Adrian Oliver -- not even as a second-teamer.

Granted, he missed some WAC games last season due to injury and played at less than 100% in some others but still...

Plus hold on, as we aren't done just yet. The media picked a five-player All-WAC team and here that is:

Preseason Media All-WAC Team

First Team

Luke Babbitt, So., F, Nevada
Mac Hopson, Sr., G, Idaho
Armon Johnson, Jr., G, Nevada
Jared Quayle, Sr., G, Utah State
Jahmar Young, Jr., G, New Mexico State

By the way, the coaches also collectively predicted Louisana Tech would come in fifth in 2009-2010 -- the media offered a sixth place finish.

On October 1 of last year, we Karnak the Magnificent-ed Young, Hopson, Oliver, Babbitt and George as the top quintet. We may have updated these selections after that but can't find that at the moment.

Hopson has been good but Kyle Gibson has been great. Plus, let's see how many games Paul George misses and then his level of play once he returns.

1 comment:

Sam Wasson said...

For the record, I'd just like to point out that I voted for Adrian Oliver on my All-WAC media ballot...