Weber's Berry is MVP; Davis earns HM for Montana State

[Colter_Nuanez]

Big Sky press release

Big Sky Conference regular-season champion Weber State brought home three of the five major men’s basketball honors Monday as the 2013-14 All-Conference Team and individual award winners were announced.

Weber State senior guard/forward Davion Berry was selected by the conference head coaches as the Most Valuable Player. Wildcat guard Jeremy Senglin was tabbed the Freshman of the Year. Sophomore forward Joel Bolomboy was named the Defensive Player of the Year.

Northern Arizona junior Quinton Upshur was selected as the Newcomer of the Year. The league also named a Top Reserve for the first time since the 1987-88 season. North Dakota’s Jamal Webb and Portland State’s DaShaun Wiggins shared the honor.

Berry, a 6-foot-4, senior from Oakland, Calif., was an unanimous First Team selection. Berry led Weber State to a 14-6 conference record, the school’s first regular-season championship since 2009-10. Weber State takes the No. 1 seed to the Big Sky Championship, which begins Thursday at the Dee Events Center in Ogden, Utah.

Berry ranks third in the league in scoring with an average of 19.2 points per game. Berry also averaged 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and one steal per game. He shot .811 percent from the free-throw line, and .381 percent from 3-point range. Berry is the eighth Weber State player in history to win Big Sky MVP, and the first since current NBA All-Star and reigning Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard in 2011-12.

Berry was joined on the First Team by Montana senior Kareem Jamar, North Dakota senior Troy Huff, Sacramento State junior Mikh McKinney, Eastern Washington sophomore Tyler Harvey, and Upshur. Jamar, Huff, and McKinney were unanimous selections. Jamar was tabbed to the First Team for the third straight season. Huff and Berry were repeat selections.

Jamar, a 6-5 guard/forward from Venice, Calif., averaged 18.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game, helping Montana to a 12-8 conference record. Jamar is the 22nd player in league history to earn First Team honors three times.

Huff, a 6-5, guard/forward from Milwaukee, Wisc., finished the regular season second in the league in scoring at 19.6 points per game. Huff scored more than 1,000 points in two seasons playing in the Big Sky.

Harvey, a guard from Torrance, Calif., enjoyed a tremendous breakout campaign for the Eagles. Harvey averaged a league-best 21.8 points per game, and was second in Big Sky single-season history with 109 3-pointers. He also led the league in free-throw shooting at .897 percent, and made .433 percent of his 3-pointers. Harvey ranks fifth in the nation in 3-point field goals per gam and 3-point field goals made, eighth in points per game, and 13th in 3-point field-goal percentage.

McKinney, a 6-1 junior guard from Union City, Calif, is the first Hornet to garner First Team All-Conference honors since Alex Bausley and DaShawn Freeman were honored in 2005-06. McKinney netted 16.3 points and 4.5 assists per game, helping the Hornets secure a postseason bid for the first time since 2006.

Upshur, a 6-foot-5 junior guard from Norfolk, Va., garnered the Newcomer of the Year and First Team honors after averaging 15.8 points per game. He averaged 2.4 3-pointers and 1.6 steals per game. He is the first Lumberjack to win Newcomer of the Year since Tyrone Bazy in 2005-06. Upshur played last season at Kilgore Junior College after starting his career at VMI.

Senglin, a 6-foot-2, true freshman guard from Arlington, Texas, started all 28 games for the Wildcats. He averaged 11.3 points per game and shot .407 percent from 3-point range. Senglin is the fourth Wildcat to capture the honor, which has been presented since 1985-86.

Two players from New York shared the Top Reserve honor. Webb is a senior from Buffalo, while Wiggins is a junior from The Bronx. To be eligible players must have started fewer than 50 percent of the conference games. Webb averaged 7.7 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.7 steals per game. Wiggins netted 12.7 points and 1.1 steals per game.

Bolomboy, a 6-foot-9, sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas, is the first Wildcat since Daviin Davis (2008-09) to claim Defensive Player of the Year. Bolomboy leads the Big Sky and ranks fifth in the nation in rebounds at 10.9 per game. He pulled down at least 10 rebounds in 17 of the 20 conference games. He also helped Weber State lead the league in scoring defense at 66.5 points per game.

Northern Colorado senior forward Derrick Barden and senior guard Tate Unruh led the Second Team. They were joined by Weber State senior center Kyle Tresnak, Idaho State junior guard/forward Chris Hansen, and Portland State junior guard Gary Winston.

2013-14 Big Sky Men’s Basketball All-Conference Team

FIRST TEAM
Player Hgt. Year Pos. School Hometown
Tyler Harvey 6-4 So. G Eastern Washington Torrance, Calif.
*#Kareem Jamar 6-5 Sr. G/F Montana Venice, Calif.
*^Troy Huff 6-5 Sr. G/F North Dakota Milwaukee, Wisc.
Quinton Upshur 6-5 Jr. G Northern Arizona Norfolk, Va.
*^Davion Berry 6-4 Sr. G/F Weber State Oakland, Calif.
*Mikh McKinney 6-1 Jr. G Sacramento State Union City, Calif.
*Unanimous Selection
#Three-Time First Team All-Conference. ^Two-Time First Team All-Conference

SECOND TEAM
Player Hgt. Year Pos. School Hometown
Chris Hansen 6-4 Jr. G/F Idaho State Fort Collins, Colo.
Tate Unruh 6-4 Sr. G Northern Colorado Branson, Mo.
Derrick Barden 6-5 Sr. F Northern Colorado Detroit, Mich.
Gary Winston 6-0 Jr. G Portland State Walla Walla, Wash.
Kyle Tresnak 6-10 Sr. C Weber State Phoenix, Ariz.

HONORABLE MENTION
Player Hgt. Year Pos. School Hometown
Venky Jois 6-7 So. F Eastern Washington Boronia, Australia
Keron DeShields 6-2 Jr. G Montana Baltimore, Md.
Jordan Gregory 6-2 Jr. G Montana Pueblo, Colo.
Flavien Davis 6-5 Sr. F Montana State Milwaukee, Wisc.
Aaron Anderson 5-10 Sr. G North Dakota Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Jamal Webb 6-1 Sr. G North Dakota Buffalo, N.Y.
Max Jacobsen 6-8 Sr. F Northern Arizona Lake Oswego, Ore.
DaShaun Wiggins 6-2 Jr. G Portland State Bronx, N.Y.
Dylan Garrity 6-2 Jr. G Sacramento State Huntington Beach, Calif.
Joel Bolomboy 6-9 So. F Weber State Fort Worth, Texas

[SACCAT]

Only one player above 6'5" on the first or second team...This is the Big Sky.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Look how sophomores and juniors are those lists...and none of them are ours.

[DicTater]

One player is honorable mention. That pretty much sums up the season, huh? So, does Huse put his players in a position to succeed?

[John K]

Look how sophomores and juniors are those lists...and none of them are ours.

That doesn't exactly bode well for us, when looking ahead to the next couple of seasons, does it?

[John K]

One player is honorable mention. That pretty much sums up the season, huh? So, does Huse put his players in a position to succeed?

So does that speak more to Huse's inability to recruit talented players, or to his inability to develop them and make the best use of their abilities? It doesn't seem like any of our players ever improve very much during the course of their careers.

[Colter_Nuanez]

One player is honorable mention. That pretty much sums up the season, huh? So, does Huse put his players in a position to succeed?

So does that speak more to Huse's inability to recruit talented players, or to his inability to develop them and make the best use of their abilities? It doesn't seem like any of our players ever improve very much during the course of their careers.

Talent isn't the issue. Paul Egwuonwu is the single most talented big man in the Big Sky. The only guys in the conversation with him are Weber's duo of Kyle Tresnak and Joel Bolomboy. Yet Egwuonwu averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. His athleticism is astounding. His drive is underwhelming. When you're talking about young kids, that's coaching. I could go on about MSU's talent and how it compares to the rest of the league, but I won't bore you. Montana State has talented players. They underachieve.

[wbtfg]

One player is honorable mention. That pretty much sums up the season, huh? So, does Huse put his players in a position to succeed?

So does that speak more to Huse's inability to recruit talented players, or to his inability to develop them and make the best use of their abilities? It doesn't seem like any of our players ever improve very much during the course of their careers.

Talent isn't the issue. Paul Egwuonwu is the single most talented big man in the Big Sky. The only guys in the conversation with him are Weber's duo of Kyle Tresnak and Joel Bolomboy. Yet Egwuonwu averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. His athleticism is astounding. His drive is underwhelming. When you're talking about young kids, that's coaching. I could go on about MSU's talent and how it compares to the rest of the league, but I won't bore you. Montana State has talented players. They underachieve.

Exactly! Maybe this is Blue tinted glasses, but in my opinion Erik Rush should have been a Kareem Jamar type of talent.

[grizzh8r]

One player is honorable mention. That pretty much sums up the season, huh? So, does Huse put his players in a position to succeed?

So does that speak more to Huse's inability to recruit talented players, or to his inability to develop them and make the best use of their abilities? It doesn't seem like any of our players ever improve very much during the course of their careers.

Talent isn't the issue. Paul Egwuonwu is the single most talented big man in the Big Sky. The only guys in the conversation with him are Weber's duo of Kyle Tresnak and Joel Bolomboy. Yet Egwuonwu averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. His athleticism is astounding. His drive is underwhelming. When you're talking about young kids, that's coaching. I could go on about MSU's talent and how it compares to the rest of the league, but I won't bore you. Montana State has talented players. They underachieve.

Exactly! Maybe this is Blue tinted glasses, but in my opinion Erik Rush should have been a Kareem Jamar type of talent.

Yep.