USU basketball: Quayle, Wesley named first-team All-WAC

LOGAN — Utah State basketball is, for lack of a less-cliched term, a collection of players that, when thrown together on the court, is greater as a whole than the sum of its parts.

And when the Western Athletic Conference coaches cast their ballots for the all-conference team, they recognized that and, despite statistics that might otherwise indicate, placed a pair of Aggies on the All-WAC first team.

Senior point guard Jared Quayle and junior forward Tai Wesley were both named to the first team despite neither averaging more than 13 points per game...

"Individual representation comes with team success," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. "And we were well represented."

Morrill, after guiding Utah State to a third straight WAC title — this time winning the league title by three games for the second year in a row — got his share of respect as well, being named the WAC coach of the year for the second straight season.

"Let's be honest," he said. "That's what happens when you win the league, but it doesn't happen without a really good staff."

Wesley, for good measure, was named the WAC player of the week after leading the Aggies to a pair of wins in the final week of the regular season. In victories over Fresno State and New Mexico State Wesley averaged 22.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game. He also shot 82.6 percent (19-of-23) from the field.

For the season, Wesley — a 6-foot-7 Provo High product — ranked third in the WAC in field goal shooting (.578) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.02), seventh in blocked shots (1.29), 10th in rebounding (6.4), 11th in assists (3.23), 13th in scoring (13.7) and 15th in free throw shooting (.715).

Quayle, similarly, ranked third in the league in free throw shooting (.889), fifth in three-point shooting (.432) and assists (4.26), ninth in steals (1.19), 11th in rebounding (6.2) and 15th in scoring (11.9) but led the WAC with a 2.59 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Individually, neither player had the numbers to jump out and make a strong case for first-team all-conference. Collectively, however, it was impossible to deny the impact the duo had on the court and in the league standings.

"I commend the coaches for awarding our team," Morrill said. "It says they recognize that it's not about who scores the most, it's a team game."

In addition to Wesley and Quayle, the Aggies had three other players receive post-season honors from the WAC.

Junior swingman Pooh Williams was named to the WAC all-defensive team after a year of shutting down many of the best scorers Utah State came across.

Nate Bendall and Brian Green, both junior transfers from Salt Lake Community College, were named to the WAC all-newcomer team.

"All in all," Morrill said, "pretty dang good representation."

Nevada's super sophomore forward Luke Babbitt was named the WAC's player of the year after averaging 23.7 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game in league play.

The Aggies, 25-6 overall and finishing 14-2 in the WAC, open the conference tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. against Boise State.

e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com