Utah State basketball: Ags earn top WAC honors

Five years ago, Gary Wilkinson hadn't been a member of a basketball team since he was in junior high.

On Sunday, Utah State's 6-foot-9 senior was named the Western Athletic Conference's player of the year after leading the Aggies to back-to-back league titles.

"With winning comes those kinds of things," Wilkinson said Sunday afternoon after being told he had won the award. He called the individual honor a reflection on the team-first approach USU has used all season long,

Wilkinson was not the only Aggie honored by the WAC coaches. Coach Stew Morrill, who guided the team to a 14-2 mark in conference play, was named the coach of the year, and junior point guard Jared Quayle was named to the second team as well as to the all-newcomer team.

"You are always honored and humbled when your peers recognize you," Morrill said. "This award is special and probably means a little more to me with all the years I have coached in the WAC and have never received that honor before."

The Aggies, who closed out the regular season with a 27-4 record and made a 3-week appearance in the Top 25 polls earlier in the season, have been paced by Wilkinson — also the WAC preseason selection for player of the year — since the opening tip.

Averaging 16.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and shooting 59.1 percent from the floor, Wilkinson was among the WAC leaders and helped USU capture its first outright conference title since joining the league four seasons ago.

Wilkinson has started in each of the 66 games he has played for the Aggies and shot 83.6 percent from the free throw line. He needs only eight more points to reach the 1,000-point mark.

"The player of the year usually comes from the team that wins the league and for Gary to win the award is a credit to both him and his teammates," said Morrill. "When the year started and the media picked Gary to be the preseason player of the year, I told him if we were good enough to win a league title that would give him a chance at the honor, and he had to be a player of the year candidate for us to have a chance."

Quayle, who began the season as USU's shooting guard but assumed the point guard duties shortly into the season.

The 6-2 Box Elder High product came on strong over the second half of the season and finished the year averaging 12.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.77 assists per game. Quayle also enjoyed a 2.09 assist-to-turnover ratio and averaged 76.8 percent shooting from the free throw line.