Men's Basketball Picked First in WAC's Preseason Coaches Poll

Salt Lake City — Utah State University's men's basketball team has been picked to win the Western Athletic Conference according to the league's coaches, while senior guard Jaycee Carroll was tabbed the WAC's Preseason Player of the Year, it was announced at the annual basketball media day here on Wednesday [Oct. 10].

Utah State was picked first in the coaches poll as it received 58 points, including four first-place votes, while New Mexico State was picked second with 57 points and three first-place votes. Nevada, who has won the WAC's regular season title each of the last four years, was picked third in the poll with 53 points and one first-place vote, while Fresno State was picked fourth with 46 points and one first-place vote.

 

In the media poll, New Mexico State was picked to finish first as the Aggies received 255 points and 13 first-place votes, while Utah State was tabbed second with 250 points and 10 first-place votes. Nevada, who received 239 points and the remaining seven first-place votes was picked third, while Fresno State (208) was picked fourth and Boise State (175) fifth.

 

"Any of the first five or six teams could've been picked first and the voting was very close," said USU head coach Stew Morrill on his team being picked to finish first by the coaches and second by the media in the WAC's preseason polls. "We don't have a dominant team in the league like we've had with Nevada the last few years, so there's a lot of balance. And we happen to have three starters back and we finished the year pretty well, so I think that had something to do with it."

 

Utah State was picked to finish fourth in last year's preseason polls and finished fourth during the regular season with a 9-7 WAC record before advancing to the conference's championship game for the second straight year.

 

Utah State returns three starters from last year's club that finished with a 23-12 overall record and lost at Michigan (68-58) in the first round of the 2007 Mastecard National Invitation Tournament. Along with Carroll, USU also returns Kris Clark and Stephen DuCharme to the starting lineup.

 

Carroll, who earned honorable mention Associated Press All-America and first-team all-WAC honors as a junior, becomes the first Utah State player to garner preseason Player of the Year honors from the WAC. Carroll finished the 2007 season first in the WAC and 10th in the nation in scoring with 21.3 points per game.

 

The coaches preseason all-conference first- team consisted of Justin Hawkins (New Mexico State), Marcelus Kemp (Nevada), Reggie Larry (Boise State), Fred Peete (New Mexico State) and Carroll, while the second-team listed Kevin Bell (Fresno State), Hector Hernandez (Fresno State), Demarshay Johnson (Nevada), Matt Nelson (Boise State) and Bobby Nash (Hawai'i).

 

The media also selected a preseason all-conference team which included Bell, Hawkins, Kemp, Larry and Carroll, who was selected as the preseason Player of the Year, while Herb Pope of New Mexico State was selected by the media as the league's preseason Newcomer of the Year.

 

Utah State will officially begin the 2007-08 season with its first practice on Friday, Oct. 12 and play its first exhibition game on Wednesday, Oct. 31 against EA Sports at 7:05 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

 

Season tickets are available through USU's website at www.UtahStateAggies.com or by calling the ticket office toll free at 1-888-USTATE-1 ore (435) 797-0305.

 

See the complete breakdown of coaches and media poll rankings, as well as the All-WAC teams in the story on the Athletics Web site.