Saturday's WAC digest

PTW keeps trying to go to an every other day schedule but the WAC news gods and goddesses aren't allowing such.

Big Wen keeps working it:



But a MB string @ Dons Central indicates Wendell is no longer on the Golden State Warrior summer league squad.

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It may be unlucky but Cardell Butler will accept the 13th spot in Matt Sonnenberg's Top 20 Stew Morrill era countdown.

Guess who landed at #12?

Yes, there should be an annual Beehive in-state tournament -- set the egos aside, lose the fear and do something for the fans and even the players.

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Hernst Laroche is now earning a paycheck in the Ukraine.

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Check out the 2013 Inside Runner Sports Recruiting Board. Talk about handy.

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Matt McCombs interviews ESPN's Doug Gottlieb ostensibly about Nevada hoops but a lot of the questions and answers apply to WAC members.

By the way and for old times sake, Alex Kline recently tweeted this:

"Nevada has offered 2013 DC Assault guard DJ Fenner"

Will it be unanimous?

PTW says make it unanimous here and now -- Hernst Laroche gets WAC Player of the Week.

Sunday's WAC-ar00

Hey, it's the Hernst Laroche weekend as Jason Groves also features the New Mexico State floor leader in his Top 10 WAC player countdown.

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Dayton Morinaga reports in multi-media that Hauns Brereton is the new "King of the Beach" for UH basketball. No word is Brereton then jumped over to Kailua-Kona to challenge the pros in the Ironman event.

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Lance Frazier finds out that Brady Jardine does birthday parties, and PTW offers kudos to the Aggie senior.

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Well, this is interesting. At the GoVandals Scout site in the Basketball Forum, gcheck2181 has posted that Coach Don Verlin received a commitment from another junior college backcourter, Darrington Banks (originally out of Las Vegas) -- Denzel Douglas and Tim Johnson being the earlier ones. But some of Johnson's writeups make it sound like he's more of a points producer. The 6-foot-1 Banks totaled 36 assists in 20 games last year at Grayson County JC where he was a second team all conference selection so he may also be more shooter than passer. Each of these guys are jet quick.

So who will be the top assist(er) in the 2011-12 WAC?

New Mexico State's Hernst Laroche is back to defend his 5.1 assists per game WAC crown and that's who PTW is going with as the coming season's top passer.

What would aid Laroche's total is a sharpshooting two guard or wing who can catch and deliver. His likely shooting running mates: Christian Kabongo finished at 26% from long distance in 2010-11 and Remi Barry hasn't played in two years. But we're still going with the senior from Canada.

Effective outside shooting would also open up the inside more, playing to an Aggie strength.

Brockeith Pane was tied for third last season at 4.4 assists a contest and we see that number going higher. He is going to score more in 2012-11 but PTW also expects him to generate offense for others.

Fresno State's Steve Shepp and Idaho's Landon Tatum finish fifth and sixth respectively with Deonte Burton seventh and Deremy Geiger ninth.

PTW sees neither Shepp nor Tatum raising their per game averages all that much while Burton has the possibility of doing so but remains a shooting point. Geiger is also more shooter than passer.

Hawaii newcomer Shaq Stokes will finish in the top 10 but, again, his focus is more on scoring.