Madison misses out on WAC’s top award
In the end, the Western Athletic Conference's nine coaches went with the best player on the one of the league's two best teams instead of the league's leading scorer. New Mexico State's Daniel Mullings was named WAC Player of the Year on Sunday afternoon, beating out Idaho's Stephen Madison.
Madison led the WAC in scoring, averaging 19.9 points per game in his senior campaign for the 14-17 Vandals. He was a first-team All-WAC selection along with Mullings, Utah Valley's Holton Hunsaker and Ben Aird and Grand Canyon University's Killian Larson. No other Idaho players were honored in the postseason awards.
Utah Valley won the league, just ahead of NMSU. Idaho, which finished tied for fifth, will square off Thursday with University of Missouri-Kansas City -- the team they beat 87-80 on Sat -- in the first round of the WAC tournament. Tipoff is set for 2:30 p.m.
Last year, Idaho's Kyle Barone nabbed the WAC's Player of the Year award despite the Vandals going 12-17 in the regular season.