Around the Mountain: Toppin ties MW record, has numbers on par with best freshman seasons
In 27 minutes of foul-troubled, bruising play on Saturday night, primarily against two expected All-Mountain West conference forwards — Boise State’s O’Mar Stanley and Tyson Degenhart — UNM Lobo freshman JT Toppin certainly took his lumps.
But he also showed, once again, that he can be quite a problem himself in the league with his tenacious offensive rebounding and ability to finish around the rim — a bright spot for the UNM Lobos in a second straight late-season loss.
Monday, Toppin’s performance — with a stat line of 21 points, 8 rebounds (4 offensive), 3 blocks, 2 steals and 9-of-12 shooting — was rewarded with not just the Mountain West Freshman of the Week award, but his ninth such honor this season.
Interestingly enough, that ties the conference record set two years ago by Degenhart.
With one week left in the regular season, and just one weekly Freshman of the Week award yet to be handed out, Toppin has two more games to make a case for the record-setting 10th honor, though for full context the Freshman of the Week award wasn’t handed out when star freshmen like San Diego State’s Kawhi Leonard or UNLV’s Anthony Bennett were in the league. Those two, however, had seasons that landed them on the All-Mountain West first team, the only two freshmen ever to make first team in the league’s history.
With the understanding that the four forwards are not exactly the same players, though all four fit into the “four” role in the college game, here’s a look at Toppin’s stats this season compared to past MW Freshman of the Year winners Leonard, Bennett and Degenhart:
Toppin’s freshman averages:
12.4 points
8.7 rebounds (3.4 offensive)
1.1 steals
1.9 blocks
58.1% shooting
Leonard’s freshman averages:
12.7 points
9.9 rebounds (3.5 offensive)
1.4 steals
0.7 blocks
45.5% shooting
Bennett freshman averages:
16.1 points
8.1 rebounds (2.5 offensive)
0.7 steals
1.2 blocks
53.3% shooting
Degenhart’s freshman averages:
9.9 points
3.9 rebounds (1.5 offensive)
0.8 steals
0.6 bocks
50.0% shooting
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Joining Toppin in the league’s weekly awards is Nevada’s Jarod Lucas. Aside from averaging 22 points and hitting 54.5% of his 3-pointers in wins at Colorado State and vs. Fresno State last week, Lucas also seemed to unofficially kick-start the madness of March with the national attention he received last Tuesday (yes, on Feb. 27) in Fort Collins, Colo., with his banked-in, half-court, buzzer beating 3-pointer — shot off the wrong foot — to beat the Rams, 77-74.
HOME-COURT HEROES: To borrow a phrase from CBS Sports bracket guru Jerry Palm, there seems to be a lot of home-court heroes in the Mountain West — if not by actual results, by reputation.
While the regular Thursday morning radio guest of 610 KNML’s “The Opening Drive” in Albuquerque has often used the term to describe the Lobos, the reality is their record away from the Pit — both in league play and overall this season — holds up fine with most conference peers.
Here are the number of wins away from home for each MW team:
11 — Utah State (7 road, 4 neutral)
10 — Nevada (7 road, 3 neutral)
9 — New Mexico (5 road, 4 neutral)
8 — Boise State (6 road, 2 neutral)
8 — San Diego State (5 road, 3 neutral)
7 — UNLV (7 road, 0 neutral)
6 — Colorado State (3 road, 3 neutral)
5 — Air Force (5 road, 0 neutral)
5 — Wyoming (2 road, 3 neutral)
4 — Fresno State (3 road, 1 neutral)
3 — San Jose State (1 road, 2 neutral)
And road wins in conference play:
6 — Boise State, UNLV
5 — Nevada
4 — New Mexico
3 — San Diego State
2 — Air Force, Fresno State, Wyoming
1 — Colorado State, San Jose State
POLL POSITION: Two MW teams were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday with four others showing up in the “others receiving votes” section.
• No. 21 San Diego State: Down from No. 20 last week, high vote 14, not on four ballots
• No. 22 Utah State: Same as last week’s No. 22, high vote 14, not on five ballots
• Nevada: 42 points, one spot out of rankings (No. 25 Dayton has 50 points), high vote 20
• Boise State: 26 points, three spots out, high vote 23 (three voters)
• New Mexico: 5 points, 8 spots out, only vote at No. 21
• Colorado State: 2 points, 12 spots out, only vote at No. 24
MIGHT BE A SINN: One voter, more than any of this year’s Associated Press Top 25 voters, has been on the Mountain West bandwagon the longest.
Dylan Sinn of the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette has regularly been the top voter for MW teams each week this season, including casting the highest vote this week for SDSU (14), UNM (21) and CSU (24) while being the third highest voter for Nevada (22).
The Journal reached out after last week’s poll to ask about his pro-MW stance.
“I was very impressed with the Mountain West in the non-conference schedule (Colorado State by 21 over Creighton, San Diego State by 25 over Saint Mary’s, etc.),” Sinn replied in an email. “One thing about the way I do polling is I really try to take into account head to head where possible, especially big wins like that, so as the season has gone on those games have continued to play a significant role.”
SELLOUT TRACKER: UNM’s game at Boise State on Saturday was sellout No. 22 in 89 Mountain West games. It appears the league will get either three or four more this week to finish with 25 or 26 this season in 99 regular-season league games.
HIGH FIVE: Here are the five best MW games this week, listed chronologically (times MT):
• SDSU at UNLV, 9 p.m. Tuesday (CBSSN)
• Nevada at Boise State, 9 p.m. Tuesday (FS1)
• Boise State at SDSU, 8 p.m. Friday (FS1)
• New Mexico at Utah State, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (CBSSN)
• UNLV at Nevada, 7:30 p.m., Saturday (CBSSN)
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