2016 Mountain West basketball all-conference awards: Josh Adams wins player of the year

Wyoming Cowboys guard Josh Adams was selected by the members of the Mountain West media on Sunday. Adams averaged 23.5 points per game in Mountain West play and his 24.5 points per game for the season was good enough to be the fourth best in the country. He also averaged 5.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists and was a sharp-shooter from beyond the arc with 94 made three-point shots.

Surprisingly there were only two players who received first-place votes and the other was Marvelle Harris out of Fresno State.

There was discussion late in the season that New Mexico's Elijah Brown would be in consideration with his scoring prowess, but the Lobos ended the season losing four of five games did not help his cause. Boise State's James Webb III name popped up from time to time as well.

One glaring note from the all-conference voting is that there were zero San Diego State players who made the first team, despite them being the clear cut best team in the conference. A few things about that, the Aztecs are mainly a defensive team and their leading scorer is Jeremy Hemsley who averaged 13.1 points per game and Trey Kell 12.5, so those are not eye-popping numbers.

Also, quantifying an individual persons defensive greatness is not so simple, and no one from SDSU's defense was a blocking machine or stealing the ball on such a high clip to notice one individual efforts performance. The Aztecs are truly a team with great players but none really stood out on an individual basis this year.

However, San Diego State also had the most players voted on the three teams, and that may not be as sexy as getting first-team accolades there was recognition. Winston Shepard was the highest vote-getting Aztec and he earned second-team honors.

Re: All-Mountain West media poll, I can tell you league champ SDSU got most players voted, but they split votes & didn't get a 1st teamer.

— Geoff Grammer (@GeoffGrammer) March 6, 2016

San Diego State did get coach of the year and Skylar Spencer did earn defensive player of the year award and others were in the top three for other individual awards.

All Mountain West Team (media poll)

1st Team All-Mountain West

Josh Adams, Wyoming, Sr. 160 points (7)
Marvelle Harris, Fresno State, Sr.” 156 (4)
James Webb III, Boise State, Jr. 137
Elijah Brown, New Mexico, So.€” 135
Tim Williams, New Mexico, Jr. 104

2nd Team All-Mountain West

Marqueze Coleman, Nevada, Sr. 95
Winston Shepard, San Diego State, Sr.” 80
Patrick McCaw, UNLV, So. 72
Cameron Oliver, Nevada, Fr.” 61
Antwan Scott, Colorado State, Sr.” 47

3rd Team All-Mountain West

Jalen Moore, Utah State, Jr.” 44
Chris Smith, Utah State, Sr. 43
Jeremy Hemsley, San Diego State, Fr. 40
Trey Kell, San Diego State, So. 36
Mikey Thompson, Boise State, Sr.” 23

Honorable mention: Hayden Graham, Air Force; Anthony Drmic, Boise State; Emmanuel Omogbo and Tiel Daniels, Colorado State; Skylar Spencer, San Diego State; Cullen Russo, Fresno State; Stephen Zimmerman Jr., UNLV; Jason McManamen, Wyoming.

Specialty Awards

(with total votes for winner in parenthesis)
Player of the Year: Josh Adams, Wyoming (7)
Others receiving votes: Marvelle Harris, Fresno State
Coach of the Year: Steve Fisher, San Diego State (7)
Others receiving votes: Eric Musselman, Nevada; Rodney Terry, Fresno State
Newcomer of the Year: Elijah Brown, New Mexico (6)
Others receiving votes: Tim Williams, New Mexico
Freshman of the Year: Cameron Oliver, Nevada (7)
Others receiving votes: Jeremy Hemsley, San Diego State
Defensive Player of the Year: Skylar Spencer, San Diego State (5)
Others receiving votes: Cameron Oliver, Nevada; Patrick McCaw, UNLV
Sixth Man of the Year: Tyron Criswell, Nevada (5)
Others receiving votes: Brandon Clarke and Princeton Onwas, San Jose State; Cullen Russo, Fresno State

Here is a breakdown of each vote from the media (click image for larger view).

The coaches will have their own post season awards announced on Tuesday; the reason for two polls is because the coaches chose to remove the media from post season awards, but the conference recognizes both.