March 9, 2009
LAS VEGAS - UNLV men's basketball seniors Wink Adams and René Rougeau were both recognized as the All-Mountain West Conference awards were announced by the league on Monday.
Adams, a 6-foot guard from Houston, Texas, was selected to the All-MWC second team, while Rougeau, a 6-6 guard from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., was named to the third team and was also named a member of the conference's all-defensive squad. Both Adams and Rougeau have earned all-conference accolades in the past as Adams was a member of the first team in 2007-08 and Rougeau was named honorable mention last year. As a sophomore, Adams was a second-team selection and was honorable mention as a freshman in 2005-06.
The awards were selected by the league's nine men's head coaches along with a selected media panel.
UNLV, which finished the regular season with a 21-9 overall record and a 9-7 mark in conference play, is the No. 5 seed for this week's MWC Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Runnin' Rebels will face No. 4 seed San Diego State in a quarterfinal matchup on Thursday, March 12 at 2:30 p.m.
Adams led the Runnin' Rebels in scoring and was 11th in scoring in the MWC in conference-only games with 13.8 ppg. Rougeau led the team in rebounding, blocked shots, field-goal percentage and was second in steals for conference-only games. He was second in the MWC in blocks with 1.6 per game, third in field-goal percentage at 55.7 percent, tied for fourth in steals with 1.4 per game and was ninth in rebounding with 5.8 rpg.
The first team consisted of BYU's Lee Cummard and Jimmer Fredette, New Mexico's Tony Danridge, Utah's Luke Nevill and Wyoming's Brandon Ewing. Along with Adams, the second-team was made up of New Mexico's Daniel Faris, San Diego State's Kyle Spain and Lorrenzo Wade and TCU's Kevin Langford. Also on the third team with Rougeau was BYU's Jonathan Tavernari, Colorado State's Marcus Walker, San Diego State's Richie Williams and Utah's Lawrence Borha.
Honorable mention honors went to Air Force's Andrew Henke, New Mexico's Roman Martinez and Chad Toppert, San Diego State's Billy White, TCU's Zvonko Buljan, Utah's Carlon Brown, Luka Drca, Shaun Green and Tyler Kepkay, while Wyoming was represented by Tyson Johnson and Sean Ogirri.
The all-defensive team was made up of Rougeau, BYU's Jackson Emery, Williams, Borha and Nevill.
The Player of the Year in the conference went to Nevill, along with the Defensive Player of the Year award. Newcomer of the Year went to Buljan, while Freshman of the Year was Wyoming's Afam Muojeke. Green won Sixth Man of the Year and Coach of the Year went to New Mexico's Steve Alford.
