USU basketball: Spencer Butterfield named WAC Men's Basketball Player of the Week

Utah State's Spencer Butterfield has been named the Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of March 4-10, announced Sunday by the conference office.

Butterfield, a junior guard/forward from Loomis, Calif., (Del Oro HS/Yuba CC), returned to USU’s lineup after missing the last game with a hip injury. He averaged a double-double for the week with 12.0 points and 11.5 rebounds in leading Utah State to a 2-0 mark in the final weekend of the regular season, topping Texas State, 77-61, on Thursday and routing UTSA on Saturday, 71-51.

In Thursday's win over the Bobcats, Butterfield snared a career-high 20 rebounds, for the most rebounds by a USU player since 1997 and the most in the WAC this season, as well as the fifth-most in the NCAA this season. Butterfield added 10 points for his seventh double-double of the season, going 4-of-11 from the field, 0-of-3 behind the arc and 2-of-2 at the free-throw line. He also dished out seven assists, and posted one block and one steal. In Saturday’s rout of the Roadrunners, Butterfield netted 14 points, making 4-of-6 from the field, 3-of-5 from three-point range and 3-of-4 at the free-throw line, also pulling down three rebounds while logging five assists, one block and one steal.

For the week, Butterfield averaged 12.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game, while shooting 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from the field, making 3-of-8 (37.5 percent) behind the three-point arc and 5-of-6 (83.3 percent) at the charity stripe.

This is the second time in the last five weeks that Butterfield has been named the WAC Player of the Week, as he also collected the accolade on Feb. 11. It is also the fourth time this season that a USU player has earned the weekly conference honor, as senior forward Kyisean Reed collected the award on Dec. 23 and junior guard Preston Medlin garnered the accolade on Jan. 7.

For the season, Butterfield leads the WAC in free throw percentage both overall (.824) and in league only games (.837). Butterfield ranks 12th in the WAC in scoring overall (12.0), while ranking ninth in league games (13.3). He also is fourth in the league in overall three-point field goal percentage (.418), while ranking sixth in conference games (.408), in addition to seventh in overall three-pointers made (1.64) and 10th in WAC only games (1.71). Butterfield also ranks sixth in field goal percentage overall (.491) and ninth in league games (.497), as well as eighth in rebounds overall (6.6) and sixth in league contests (7.6). He is also 13th in the WAC overall in assists (2.71) and 10th in WAC only games (3.18). He also is eighth in assist-turnover ration in WAC only games (1.69), while ranking ninth in league only games for minutes played (32.53).

Utah State (21-9, 11-7 WAC) will be the fifth seed for the 2013 Western Athletic Conference Tournament and will play fourth-seeded UT Arlington in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 14 at 9:30 p.m. (MT) at the Orleans Arena at Las Vegas, Nev.

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