3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: Darrion Trammell, So., Seattle
Coach of the Year*: Bryce Drew, Grand Canyon
Newcomer of the Year: Darrion Trammell, So., Seattle
Freshman of the Year: Freddy Hicks, Tarleton St.
Season Storylines:
COVID chewed up and spit out the Wild Wild WAC this season, leaving a skeleton of a typical tournament field for the WAC Championship. Grand Canyon and Utah Valley finished tied in the win column (9) at the top of the leaderboard, two games ahead of perennial WAC emperor, New Mexico State. Chris Jans had all the ingredients for a stellar 2021 campaign, but an impossible obstacle course, filled with injuries and COVID landmines, derailed any chance of that happening.
The Lopes and Wolverines climbed the charts on the backs their twin tower frontlines. If they tango in the title game, be ready for smash mouth basketball, kids.
However, GCU should look ahead at their own peril. A sneaky sleeper awaits them in the Semifinals, no matter who emerges from the Seattle / Cal Baptist duel tonight. Rick Croy is a model of consistency in the making, a shrewd X&O tactician with a SWAT team of snipers in his back pocket (CBU checked in with the 4th best 3-point FG% in the country at 40%). But, for every triple the Lancers rack up, Darrion Trammell will likely have an answer. The 5’10 pinball is unguardable in space, taking the league by storm in his inaugural Division I season.
Speaking of debuts, Billy the Clyde showed out well in his WAC welcome tour. Tarleton State edged fellow newcomer Dixie State in the ‘first impressions’ contest, despite a rail thin rotation for Gillespie to work with.
Chicago State’s season never got off the ground, so the Bobcats retain their default residence: the garden unit of the WAC standings.
*Above all, thoughts and prayers shall continue to pour in for Lew Hill’s family. Hill’s inexplicable and sudden passing rocked the college basketball world, a necessary reminder of what this stupid little game means in the grand scheme.
Tournament Preview
Tournament Predictions
(4) Cal Baptist over (5) Seattle
(3) New Mexico St. over (6) UT Rio Grande Valley
(1) Grand Canyon over (4) Cal Baptist
(3) New Mexico St. over (2) Utah Valley
(3) New Mexico St. over (1) Grand Canyon