March 10, 2008
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Three San Diego State men's basketball players earned all-Mountain West Conference accolades, the league announced on Monday. In a vote by MWC coaches and media, junior Lorrenzo Wade was named to the all-conference first team, while junior Ryan Amoroso and freshman Billy White garnered third-team honors. White was also voted as the league's Freshman of the Year.
A year after being an MWC honorable mention selection in his first season at SDSU, Wade earned his way onto the Mountain West Conference first team after finishing league play as one of three players to rank in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocked shots and field goal percentage. The Las Vegas, Nev., native averaged 15.9 points (5th), 6.1 rebounds (9th), 4.0 assists (3rd) and 0.81 blocks (t-9th), while connecting on 44 percent of his field goal attempts (7th) in 16 MWC contests. Both of his double-doubles came during conference action as did his career highs in points, rebounds, assists, field goals and free throws. Wade scored in double figures in 12 MWC games with six of his seven 20-plus point performances this season coming during that stretch. This marks the third year in a row in which an Aztec has been named to the all-MWC first team and Wade joins Randy Holcomb, Marcus Slaughter and Brandon Heath as the only Aztec players to earn first-team MWC accolades.
White, another Aztec hailing from Las Vegas, was named to the MWC third team and voted as the league's freshman of the year after he led all conference freshmen in points, rebounds, offensive rebounds, field goal percentage and blocked shots, while finishing second in steals during league play. After starting all 16 conference games, White finished with averages of 9.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.56 offensive rebounds, 62.9-percent shooting and 1.13 blocked shots, in addition to averaging 1.38 steals per game. Among all MWC players, White led the league in offensive boards and ranked fifth in blocks, seventh in rebounding and tied for ninth in steals. Similar to Wade, White's two double-doubles also came during the conference season, once at Colorado State and the other occurring at Wyoming. In February, White became the first freshman in league history to win MWC Player of the Week honors twice in one season. White is the second SDSU player to win the top freshman award in the nine years of the MWC, joining Evan Burns in 2003, and is just the third player since Jason Hamilton in 1993 (Western Athletic Conference) to earn such an honor. White is also just the fourth freshman in league history to be named to an all-conference team.
Amoroso received third-team recognition after being one of the most productive players in the Mountain West during league play. The Burnsville, Minn., native finished his first run through the MWC averaging 12.6 points (12th) and 7.4 rebounds (2nd), while connecting on 50.6 percent of his field goal attempts (5th). A model of consistency on the boards, Amoroso grabbed at least six rebounds in 14 of the 16 conference games and finished the season collecting at least that many in 11 straight outings. The Marquette transfer's effort on the glass also put him in a tie for third with Wade in defensive rebounding (5.00) and fourth in offensive rebounding (2.44). Amoroso recorded 10 double-digit scoring performances, including three 20-plus point games, and had 10 or more rebounds twice during league play.
This is the seventh straight season in which San Diego State has had at least three players recognized by the league's coaches and media and the eighth consecutive campaign in which an Aztec player has been honored at season's end. This is just the second time that three SDSU players have been named to all-Mountain West teams, joining the 2006 championship team when Heath (first-team), Slaughter (first-team) and Mohamed Abukar (second-team) were honored.