Bern’s-Eye View: Handing out midseason awards to mediocre Mountain West

By Taylor Bern

Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 | 2 a.m.

We’re a little more than halfway through the Mountain West slate, and it would be fair to say we know only slightly more about how this thing will play out than we did on New Year’s Eve.

As predicted, no team has been able to run away with the league, and if the regular-season title race doesn’t come down to the final week I will be very surprised. Ditto for the Coach of the Year and at least a couple of the first-team spots.

The league’s mediocrity isn’t going to help it from a national perspective, but it should keep things interesting the rest of the way heading into the conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center on March 11-14. With so much still up in the air, there’s a chance a lot of this will look different by the end of the season, but at the midway point here’s how I would vote for the league’s main awards:

ALL-MOUNTAIN WEST FIRST TEAM

G — Marvelle Harris, Jr, Fresno State

G — Derrick Marks, Sr, Boise State

F — Jalen Moore, So, Utah State

F — J.J. Avila, Sr, Colorado State

F — Larry Nance, Sr, Wyoming

Others in consideration: J.J. O’Brien, Sr, San Diego State; AJ West, Jr, UNR; Aqeel Quinn, Sr, San Diego State

• If San Diego State wins the league I would make sure to have an Aztec on the first team, but since it’s only the midway point and it’s hard to identify exactly who is most deserving for them, I passed and went with players who fill up the stat sheet in a few ways.

Only stats in Mountain West games are considered for the season-ending honors, so I looked only at those to determine this, too. The biggest surprise, to me at least, is how big of a jump Moore has taken this year.

Moore had modest numbers in 17.5 minutes per game as a freshman and now he’s one of the most productive players in the league, ranking in the top eight in points, rebounds, 3-point field goal percentage and blocks.

Player of the Year — Marks

• I sent out this tweet Tuesday night and was completely serious. I was ready to give the edge to Nance, but I had the Boise State-Utah State game on and when Marks drilled a nearly 40-foot 3-pointer at a key moment to help the Broncos win at Utah State, it was clear he’s the front-runner.

Nance was the media’s preseason pick for POY, but because of doubts about his health I went with a legacy honor for Boise State’s Anthony Drmic, who ended up playing only seven games this season because of an ankle injury. I’ve always been on Drmic’s side in the debate between the two teammates who have been the Broncos’ leaders for the past four years. I thought Marks was too much of a volume shooter who couldn’t shoot (28.8 percent on 3-pointers last season) and played little defense.

However, this season, especially in conference play, Marks has been absolutely awesome. He leads the league in points (23.6) while ranking seventh in field-goal percentage (53.1), which alone is great. Add in his stellar free-throw percentage (82.9) and steals (1.9, third in the league) and you’ve got a guy who’s truly taken his game to another level.

Freshman of the Year — Rashad Vaughn, G, UNLV

• Utah State’s David Collette deserves some consideration here and my affinity for Vaughn’s teammate Pat McCaw is well known, but at this point it’s probably Vaughn’s award to lose. The funny thing about both Vaughn and Collette being up for this category is that Collette left high school three years before Vaughn.

Collette redshirted a season at Utah State and then served a two-year LDS mission.

Coach of the Year — Steve Fisher, San Diego State

• This thing is still completely up in the air, but if the season ended today I’d go with Fisher over guys like Wyoming’s Larry Shyatt and Colorado State’s Larry Eustachy. Part of that reasoning is that Fisher’s Aztecs actually went out and played some real games in the nonconference, which I think has set them up for better success in conference play.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.