DENVER – Kyle
Barone can add Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year to the resume he
has been building throughout his four-year career on the Idaho men's basketball
team, as the 6-foot-10 senior was voted the league's best by the 10 head
coaches, the WAC announced today.
Barone led the
WAC in both scoring and rebounding with 18.2 points and 10.9 rebounds per game
in WAC games. He was second in the league with a 58.3 field goal percentage,
fourth with an 80.9 free throw percentage, and eighth with 1.1 blocks per game.
He is the first Idaho player to earn WAC Player of the Year
honors.
The center
from Garden Grove, Calif., scored a career-high 27 points twice in 2012-13,
racked up 16 double-doubles, scored 20 or more points nine times and had
20-point, 10-rebound efforts on eight occasions. His 59.0 field goal percentage
for the season is the eighth-best single-season total in school history, and his
155 free throws made entering next week's WAC tournament are the
fourth-most.
Barone has
never missed a game in his four-year career, and is Idaho's career-leader with
125 games played. His 1,414 career points rank fourth in program history, his
864 career rebounds rank second, just 13 shy of all-time leader Deon
Watson.
Barone, a
two-time WAC Player of the Week in 2012-13, was also a first-team All-WAC pick
and was the only Idaho player selected to the All-WAC teams. He was a
second-team All-WAC selection in 2011-12 and an All-WAC honorable mention in
2010-11.
Joining Barone
on the first-team All-WAC are Denver's Chris Udofia, New Mexico State's Bandja
Sy and Raheem Appleby and Kenneth Smith from Louisiana Tech.
This year's
all-WAC second team consists of Denver's Chase Hallam, New Mexico State's Daniel
Mullings, Texas State's Joel Wright and Utah State's Spencer Butterfield and
Jarred Shaw.
The all-WAC third team consists of Denver's Brett Olson and
Royce O'Neale, New Mexico State's Sim Bhullar, UT Arlington's Kevin Butler and
UTSA's Michael Hale III.
New Mexico State's Bhullar becomes the first
Aggie in school history to earn the WAC's Freshman of the Year award. In 18
conference games, Bhullar averaged 11.3 points per contest, 7.3 rebounds and 3.0
blocks per game, while shooting 60.2 percent from the field.
Louisiana
Tech head coach Michael White earned his first Don Haskins Coach of the Year
honor by leading the Bulldogs to a share of the school's first-ever regular
season WAC title. In his second year with Louisiana Tech, White led the Bulldogs
to a 16-2 conference record. Coach White is the first Louisiana Tech coach in
school history to receive WAC Coach of the Year honors.
Those named to
the WAC's all-defensive team were Denver's Hallam and Udofia, Louisiana Tech's
Michale Kyser and Smith and New Mexico State's Mullings.
Selected to the
WAC's all-newcomer team were Louisiana Tech's Alex Hamilton, New Mexico State's
Bhullar, Texas State's Wright and Utah State's Butterfield and Shaw.
The
2013 WAC Tournament will be held March 12-16, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas,
Nev. Idaho, the No. 6 seed in the tournament, will take on No. 3 New Mexico
State at 11 a.m. (PT) on March 14.
Article Courtesy of The University Of Idaho
