Utah State men's basketball hands out end-of-season awards

LOGAN — Utah State men’s basketball held a season-ending, team-only dinner on Thursday to honor the 2011-12 squad that advanced to the championship game of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament and finished the year with a 21-16 record.

Utah State extended its current school records for consecutive 20 seasons of wins and postseason appearances to 13 straight in 2012. It is one of just five schools nationally to win 21 games in each of the last 13 years — along with Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas and Syracuse. Furthermore, USU’s current run of 13 straight postseason appearances is tied for the 11th-longest active streak in the nation.

During the dinner, Utah State recognized four players who received various awards from the Western Athletic Conference during the season — senior guard Brockeith Pane, junior forward Kyisean Reed, sophomore guard Preston Medlin and freshman forward Ben Clifford.

Medlin was named first-team all-WAC in 2012, marking the 13th-straight year that Utah State has had at least one player earn first-team all-conference honors. For Medlin, he is just the second sophomore in school history to earn first-team all-league honors, after Nate Harris in 2004.

Joining Medlin on the all-WAC teams in 2012 were Pane, who earned honorable mention honors after being named first-team all-WAC as a junior, and Reed, who was a member of the league’s all-newcomer team. Both Medlin and Pane also earned WAC Player of the Week honors once during the course of the season.

Utah State also had one player earn academic all-WAC honors in 2012: redshirt freshman forward Ben Clifford. Overall, USU has now had 17 players earn academic all-conference honors a total of 30 times in head coach Stew Morrill’s 14 years at the school.

Utah State also had three players named to the CollegeInsider.com All-Tournament team in Medlin, Pane and senior forward Morgan Grim. During its 2012 CIT run, Utah State set a school record with its four postseason wins and participated in the school’s first-ever postseason tournament championship game.

As for team honors, Medlin was voted the Most Valuable Player, which is named in honor of the late H. Cecil Baker who played at Utah State from 1923-25 and later coached at USU from 1951-61. Clifford was named the team’s Most Inspirational Player, while Grim and Pane were both named the team’s Best Defensive Players.

Senior forward Brady Jardine, who played in just three games during the 2012 season before suffering a career-ending injury, was voted by his teammates as the player who Best Represents Aggie basketball.

Utah State Team Honors

H. Cecil Baker Most Valuable Player – Preston Medlin

Most Inspirational – Ben Clifford

Best Defensive Player – Morgan Grim and Brockeith Pane

Best Represents Aggie Basketball – Brady Jardine

All-Western Athletic Conference Honors

First Team – Preston Medlin

Honorable Mention – Brockeith Pane

All-Newcomer Team – Kyisean Reed

Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week

Preston Medlin (1), Brockeith Pane (1)

Academic All-Western Athletic Conference

Ben Clifford

CollegeInsider.com All-Tournament Team

Morgan Grim, Preston Medlin, Brockeith Pane

NABC All-District 6 Honors

Second Team – Preston Medlin

Doug Hoffman is the assistant athletic director for Utah State University Athletic Media Relations.