Utah sophomore forward Keith Van Horn, averaging almost 23 points a game in league games, Saturday was named Player of The Year in the Western Athletic Conference by members of the media.
Van Horn also is averaging a league-leading 10.1 rebounds in WAC games and has averaged 21.5 points for the entire season.Utah coach Rick Majerus was named Coach of The Year by the 30 media members from the league's 10 cities who took part in the voting. Majerus has guided the Utes to the top of the WAC with a starting lineup that includes three sophomores, a reshirt freshman and a junior college transfer.
Utah was 23-5 overall and leading the WAC with a 14-3 record going into Saturday night's game against Brigham Young in Salt Lake City.
Majerus received 18 votes, beating out UTEP's Don Haskins, who had 11. Wyoming's Joby Wright and BYU's Roger Reid received one vote each.
Selected to the All-WAC first team along with Van Horn were senior guards Antoine Gillespie of Texas El Paso and Otis Jones of Air Force, senior forward Theo Ratliff of Wyoming and senior center Russell Larson of Brigham Young.
Overall scoring averages for the other All-WAC first team members are Jones, 23.9; Gillespie, 21.1; Larson, 18.5 and Evans 16.7.
New Mexico senior forward Marlow White headed the second team. He was joined by Utah junior forward Brandon Jessie, Brigham Young junior forward Kenneth Roberts, UTEP senior forward George Banks and Colorado State junior guard David Evans.
White has boosted this average to 16 points a game this season with a late-season assault in which he has scored 21 or more points in eight straight league games.
Jessie, Banks and Ratliff have averaged right around 15 points a game this season, while Roberts is averaging 14.5 points.
Other awards announced in the media's voting included:
Freshman of The Year - LaDrell Whitehead, Wyoming.
Transfer of The Year - Brandon Jessie, Utah.
Sixth-Man Award - Mark Rydalch, Utah.
Top Defender - Theo Ratliff, Wyoming.
Unsung Player - Chris Loll, Air Force.
All-Newcomer Team - Whitehead, Jessie, Tes Whitlock, Hawaii, Evans and Clayton Shields, New Mexico.
All-Defensive Team - Ratliff, Banks, Tony Maroney, Hawaii, Dominick Young, Fresno State and Robbie Reid, Brigham Young.