He had it coming.
Jake Hall, the Lobos’ sharp-shooting California kid who never seemed to know there is supposed to be an adjustment period from high school to college basketball, was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Year on Tuesday as selected by a joint panel of league coaches and media.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHe also became just the third player in the league’s 27-year history to be named All-Mountain West First Team as a freshman, joined by All-NBA superstar and former San Diego State Aztec Kawhi Leonard (2010) and former NBA first overall draft pick out of UNLV Anthony Bennett (2013).
Hall’s teammate, Tomislav Buljan, the only Mountain West player averaging a double-double (12.2 points, 10.3 rebounds per game), was voted to the All-Mountain West second team. The 6-foot-9 forward from Split, Croatia, averages 4.58 offensive rebounds per game — more than a full offensive rebound higher than anyone else in the league.
Mountain West regular season champion Utah State, understandably, made out nicely in the postseason honors — junior guard Mason Falslev is Player of the Year; senior forward Karson Templin is Sixth Man of the Year and Jerrod Calhoun is Coach of the Year.
UNLV’s junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn is the Newcomer of the Year and San Diego State junior wing Miles Byrd is Defensive Player of the Year.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNOTE: SEE THE FULL LIST OF ALL-MOUNTAIN WEST HONORS BELOW.
Hall, the 6-foot-4 guard who broke the league’s freshman scoring record and leads UNM in scoring (16.3 points per game overall, 17.5 in conference games), is UNM’s third Mountain West Freshman of the Year, joining Kendall Williams (2010) and JT Toppin (2024). He joins Kenny Thomas (1996 in the WAC) as the only two freshmen at UNM to also earn conference first team honors.
“Jake’s a really good player, having a great season for us, big part of the success that we've had,” said UNM first-year coach Eric Olen, who recruited Hall since the Southern California native was 14 years old. Hall had committed to play for Olen at UC San Diego, then followed the coach when he took the job at UNM last March.
“We'll need him to play well here going forward to continue to have some of that success,” Olen said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhile the FOY Award may not be a surprise now, few people were making such predictions before the season started, despite Hall having scored more than 3,100 points in high school for the Carlsbad (California) High School Lancers.
Lobo senior point guard Deyton Albury, however, knew it from Day 1 after arriving in Albuquerque as a transfer from Utah State.
“I'm gonna just let time tell, but Jake Hall for Freshman of the Year,” Albury said in Episode 117 of the Talking Grammer Podcast, which was recorded in early October.
Hall, Buljan, Albury and the rest of the Lobos open up the Mountain West Tournament on Thursday night in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The No. 3 seed Lobos will play the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between No. 6 Boise State and No. 11 San Jose State.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThursday’s quarterfinal game is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. Pacific local time in Las Vegas and 9:30 p.m. Mountain. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network with 610 AM/95.9 FM carrying the radio call in New Mexico.
Below are the official league awards, as released Tuesday by the Mountain West conference office. Here is Geoff Grammer’s All-Mountain West voting ballot.
2025-26 All-Mountain West Men’s Basketball Team
First Team
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Jaden Henley, Sr., G, Grand Canyon
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Corey Camper Jr., Gr., G, Nevada
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Jake Hall, Fr., G, New Mexico
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Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, Jr., G, UNLV
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Mason Falslev, Jr., G, Utah State
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSecond Team
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Drew Fielder, Jr., F, Boise State
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Elijah Price, So., F, Nevada
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Tomislav Buljan, Fr., F, New Mexico
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Reese Dixon-Waters, Sr., G, San Diego State
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MJ Collins, Sr., G, Utah State
Third Team
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Jevin Muniz, Sr., G, Colorado State
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Jake Heidbreder, Sr., G, Fresno State
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Makaih Williams, Jr., G, Grand Canyon
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Miles Byrd, Jr., G, San Diego State
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Colby Garland, Jr., G, San Jose State
Defensive Team
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Nana Owusu-Anane, Gr., F, Grand Canyon
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Elijah Price, So., F, Nevada
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Miles Byrd, Jr., G, San Diego State
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Tyrin Jones, Fr., F, UNLV
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Mason Falslev, Jr., G, Utah State
Honorable Mention
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Dylan Andrews, Sr., G, Boise State
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement*
Javan Buchanan, Sr., F, Boise State
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Brandon Rechsteiner, Jr., G, Colorado State
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DeShawn Gory, Fr., F, Fresno State
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Nana Owusu-Anane, Gr., F, Grand Canyon
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BJ Davis, Jr., G, San Diego State
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Tyrin Jones, Fr., F, UNLV
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Drake Allen, Gr., G, Utah State
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Leland Walker, Sr., G, Wyoming
Player of the Year: Mason Falslev, Jr., G, Utah State
Defensive Player of the Year: Miles Byrd, Jr., G, San Diego State
Newcomer of the Year: Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, Jr., G, UNLV
Sixth Man of the Year: Karson Templin, Jr., F, Utah State
Freshman of the Year: Jake Hall, G, New Mexico
Steve Fisher Coach of the Year: Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State
Reach Geoff Grammer at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
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