SALT LAKE CITY — And the winner is …

It's awards season, and on Monday the Mountain West Conference will announce its men's basketball honorees.

Utah coach Jim Boylen is hopeful that one of the winners will be J.J. O'Brien.

Boylen, in fact, thinks it should be a slam dunk.

"For what he does for us, his value on this team and his ability to score and rebound and assist, to me, he's the Freshman of the Year," Boylen said. "It's not even close."

O'Brien, a 6-foot-7 power forward, is one of four finalists for the award. BYU guard Kyle Collinsworth, TCU forward Amric Fields and New Mexico guard Kendall Williams are the others.

In conference play, O'Brien tops the group in rebounding (6.1) and minutes played (31.1). He's second in scoring (7.7) and third in assists (1.4).

Unlike the other candidates, O'Brien's numbers are up in all four categories during conference play. And unlike them, he's had to overcome a serious injury along the way.

After starting in the season opener against Grand Canyon, O'Brien missed the next nine games with a stress fracture in his right foot.

"It was a huge setback for me," O'Brien said. "But thankfully I've been able to get back."

No one, perhaps, is more grateful than Boylen. He took the injury hard.

"That was one of my toughest days since I've had this job. Because I thought he was a difference maker on our team and I thought he was special," Boylen said. "With the guys we had, we need a guy like him."

O'Brien's attributes, he noted, include versatility as well as a high basketball IQ and skill level.

"We needed that to make everybody else better," Boylen said. "A lot of times you think of a glue guy as not a primary scorer or a primary ball handler. He's a glue guy who does those things."

O'Brien also creates a lot of mismatches at the four position. He's really a point guard in a power forward's body.

As such, Boylen thinks he wasn't evaluated very well in high school and summer ball. Most coaches wanted him to be a back-to-the-basket or brute strength guy.

"I like having a flexible, versatile four-man — a Shaun Green," Boylen said. "A guy who can put it down, a guy who can make decisions, a guy who can pass the ball."

Because of his body, though, O'Brien is also a banger and a rebounder. Such versatility caught Boylen's attention. He was immediately impressed with his feet.

The two hit it off in the recruiting process.

"He's that guy, in my opinion, that everybody's looking for," Boylen said. "He's a coachable kid, and his intelligence on the floor for a freshman is awesome."

Boylen watched O'Brien play point guard in AAU ball last summer.

"So I knew he was very skilled," Boylen said. "He was guarding the best player on the other team, who was a point guard, and he was keeping him in front and staying with him."

Such versatility, the coach emphasized, makes O'Brien stick out as a special player and a difference maker at Utah. It's hard to guard him with a traditional power forward.

Boylen's praise is something O'Brien appreciates.

"It definitely feels good. It gives you a lot of confidence and it's just good to know he believes in you," O'Brien said. "It gives you all the confidence in the world to go out and play well. He puts a lot of trust in me and I want to do my best for him and my team."

Saturday's home finale against UNLV will serve as O'Brien's final audition before voters are asked submit ballots for MWC awards over the weekend.

Individual accolades, however, aren't foremost on his mind. His focus is on team success.

"It's definitely frustrating not having a winning record. We know we can win. We have so much talent here, but it takes time," O'Brien said. "We have to be patient with it. We still have a lot of stuff to learn."

With eight other new players in the program, O'Brien acknowledged that the Utes are very much a work in progress.

"I think this year's been a good learning year," he explained. "But next year I think we're really going to blossom. We're really going to show people what we are."

O'Brien is determined to do his part and meet the expectations of being what Boylen considers a "high major recruit," as good as any the Utes have had.

"I'm definitely planning on living up to it," Boylen said. "I've got to work hard to live up to it."

And then there's the team thing. Utah's past success was a factor in O'Brien's decision to sign with the Utes.

"The tradition of this place is one of the reasons why I committed here," O'Brien said. "That's huge. That's a lot of the reason why I came here. It has such a rich and great tradition."

e-mail: dirk@desnews.com

Watkins to be honored

Team captain Jay Watkins will be a one-man show at the University of Utah's "Senior Day" ceremonies. The Utes' lone departing veteran will be honored prior to Saturday's game against UNLV in the Huntsman Center.

Utes on the air

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UNLV (22-7, 10-5) at Utah (13-16, 6-9)

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