2025-26 Mountain West basketball midseason awards

Happy Thursday, everyone! We are roughly halfway through the 2025-26 college basketball season! With that said, let’s hand out some midseason awards for the 2025-26 Mountain West men’s basketball season!

Player of the Year: MJ Collins, Utah State

Heading into the season, many thought third-year Utah State guard Mason Falslev would lead the charge for the conference’s player of the year. Well, Collins, his teammate, has taken that mandle from him through the first half. In 16 games, Collins, who transferred from Vanderbilt, is averaging a MW-most 20.1 points, in addition to 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. He’s also leading the MW in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and effective field goal percentage.

Defensive Player of the Year: Mason Falslev, Utah State

Falslev has been incredibly disruptive in Utah State’s shape-shifting matchup zone this season. So far, he’s on pace to be the conference’s steals leader for the secnd consecutive season, recording 2.6 per game after tallying 2.3 steals last year. On a per-possession basis, however, Falslev’s averaging 4.2 stocks per 75 possessions, including 3.7 steals. He’s incredibly good at reading the floor defensively with sound off-ball instincts and the wherewithal to defrend without fouling.

Sixth Man of the Year: BJ Davis, San Diego State

Now it’s time for the tougher awards; I had trouble with this one, but I ultimately landed with Davis as my 6MOTY — for now at least. The junior guard hasn’t started a single gaem for SDSU this season. He’s averaging 11.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals across 16 games. Though those numbers spike to 13-5-3-2 steals in MW play on 49.1/38.1/76.0 shooting splits.

Freshman of the Year: Jake Hall, New Mexico

Hall has started all 17 games for the Lobos this season. Through 17 games, he’s averaging 14.6 points — leading all freshman — in addition to 3.1 rebounds on 46.4 percent shooting from the floor, 40.3 percent from 3-point range and 80.5 percent from the charity stripe. The 6-foot-4 freshman guard has recorded a pair of 20-point performances over his last two games against Air Force and Grand Canyon — his fifth and sixth 20-point performances this season, respectively. He also set the team’s freshman record for made 3s in a single game on Nov. 26 against Alabama State, burying seven,

Coach of the Year: Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State

Calhoun’s been the best coach on the conference’s best team.

Best Team: Utah State

Oh, did I spoil this one for you?! Well, this one is a runaway. Utah State is one of two unbeaten MW squads in conference play, having won 11 straight dating back to last year. But Utah State is top-25 nationally in both NET and KenPom. No other team is top-40 in either.