The Mountain West coaches and media honored two Utah State men’s basketball players in the end-of-season awards which were announced Tuesday morning. Graduate guard Ian Martinez was named to First Team All-Mountain West and sophomore guard Mason Falslev earned a spot on both Second Team All-MW and the MW All-Defensive Team.
Utah State was shut out from the “of the year awards” for just the second time since the 2019-20 season. New Mexico’s Donovan Dent was named Mountain West Player of the Year with his coach, Richard Pitino, earning Coach of the Year Honors. San Diego State center Magoon Gwath garnered both the Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Boise State wing Javan Buchanan was named Sixth Man of the Year with Wyoming guard Obi Agbim earning Newcomer of the Year.
Martinez led the Aggies (and is fifth in the conference) in scoring with a career-best average of 16.9 points per game to go with 3.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 steals. He became the first Utah State athlete since Jaycee Carroll to score at least 10 points in every game of the regular season. Martinez’s active streak of 34 games with at least 10-plus points ranks third in the nation.
In two seasons at Utah State, Martinez has averaged 15.0 points per game, a significant jump from the 5.2 he averaged as a freshman in Utah and the 4.4 he averaged in a pair of seasons at Maryland. This year, he made the jump to being Utah State’s top offensive option and set new career-high marks for single-game production. He had two 30-point games (32 against Montana and 30 at Fresno State), making him the seventh Aggie since 2004 to have multiple 30-point games in a season (Jaycee Carroll, Sam Merrill, Justin Bean, Great Osobor, Koby McEwen, Neemias Queta). Martinez also made seven 3-pointers in a single game twice (vs Westminster and Nevada) and is the third player in USU history to have multiple such games in a single season (Sam Merrill, Steven Ashworth). His most notable moment being a game-winning shot at home against Boise State on Jan. 11.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ian Martinez. pic.twitter.com/8TUym4ubNs
— Jason Walker (@jwalker_sports) January 12, 2025
Falslev made a big jump from his redshirt freshman to sophomore season, with new career-best averages in points (14.7), rebounds (6.1), assists (3.7) and steals (2.3). He led Utah State in both rebounds and steals, even leading the Mountain West and ranking 15th in the nation in the latter, and was one assist shy of tying Allen for the team lead in total assists (115). Falslev’s 3-point percentage also skyrocketed, going from 30.5 a year ago to 41.5 percent this year, ranking third among regular rotation players.
The redshirt sophomore dominated the early part of the season, earning four Mountain West Player of the Week honors. He recorded five games of at least 25 points, being the first sophomore to do so at Utah State since Preston Medlin in 2011-12.
Two of Falslev’s best games are also statistical anomalies in USU history. His near-triple double of 27 points, nine assists and nine rebounds against South Florida is the only time since at least 2004 that an Aggie has reached all three of those marks in a single game. And Falslev’s 25 points and 12 rebounds against Iowa made him the ninth USU player in the last 20 years to reach both marks, but only the second underclassman guard to do so (the other being Kobe McEwen).
Jason Walker and Eric Frandsen give their picks for who they believe should win the end-of-season honors in the Mountain West, from Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and so on, along with first, second and third All-MW teams.
