Utah State men’s basketball were well-represented in this year’s All-Mountain West awards. The regular season champions accounted for three total All-MW selections, three individual awards with an overall tally of seven honors given to five Aggie players and coaches. Mason Falslev led the way by being named Mountain West Player of the Year, which he paired with being named All-MW First Team and All-Defensive Team.
Along with Falslev, three of his teammates and his head coach were honored. Jerrod Calhoun was named Coach of the Year and junior forward Karson Templin earned Sixth Man of the Year. Senior guard MJ Collins was named Second Team All-MW and graduate point guard Drake Allen was an honorable mention.
Falslev was the Mountain West’s best all-around player this season. He recorded five games of 20+ points, four games of 5+ assists and two games of 10+ rebounds. No other player in the league matched all three marks. Whatever Utah State needed Falslev to be, a rebounder, scorer, defender, passer, he was able to do it at a high level.
In his press conference after the Aggies’ victory over New Mexico on Saturday, Calhoun said he would be voting for Falslev on his ballot and urged other coaches to do the same.
“I hope coaches value winning,” Calhoun said. “I hope they value not just scoring. It’s scoring, it’s rebounding, it’s assisting. He’s on the best team and he does everything the best, in my opinion. His shooting percentages are good. It’ll be interesting how the votes go, but we’re putting him down as player of the year.”
Winning very likely played a heavy factor in Falslev’s selection, as it has for many of his predecessors. Including this year, seven of the last nine Player of the Year selections have played for the regular season champion (and one of the two who didn’t was on the second-place team).
Falslev is now the third Utah State athlete to win Player of the Year alongside Sam Merrill (2019) and Great Osobor (2024). All three Aggies led their respective teams to regular season conference titles.
Calhoun became the second Utah State coach to lead the Aggies to an outright conference championship and the third coach to win a regular season MW title overall. That same club of MW title-winning coaches is the exact same group of coaches that Calhoun joins as a MW Coach of the Year winner. Craig Smith earned the award in 2019 after winning the conference (shared with Nevada) and Danny Sprinkle was named COY after winning the outright title for the Aggies in 2024.
Templin joins a long line of recent Aggies to be named Sixth Man of the Year in the program’s MW era. Four of the last six awards have gone to USU players, including Alphonso Anderson (2021), Dan Akin (2023) and Josh Uduje (2024). Templin came off the bench in all 20 MW games Utah State played in and averaged 9.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.9 blocks while shooting 54% from the field and 42% from three.
Utah State forward Karson Templin shoots the ball during the Aggies’ home game against New Mexico on March 7, 2026 (Photo by Drew Nielson)
Collins led Utah State in scoring for the seasonm averaging 17.6 points along with 2.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He also led the Aggies with 73 made 3-pointers with an overall 3-point percentage of 37.2. He had 13 games where he scored 20 or more points, including a career-best 40 points against Davidson on Nov. 23.
Utah State guard MJ Collins celebrates after a play during the Aggies’ home game against New Mexico on March 7, 2026 (Photo by Drew Nielson)
Allen earned his first All-MW honors in his second season with Utah State. He led Utah State in assists per game (4.7) and was a narrow second to Falslev in steals (1.9). He had the second-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the Mountain West with 140 assists to 62 turnovers (2.26-1 ratio).
Utah State guard Drake Allen drives toward the basket during the Aggies’ game against Memphis on Feb. 14, 2026 (Photo by Clint Allen)
All-Mountain West Awards
Here’s the full list for the end-of-season Mountain West awards and all-conference selections. Ballots were received from both the league’s head coaches and selected media members. Votes from the coaches were given more weight (a 1.0 to 0.5 ratio) than media ballots.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR — Mason Falslev (Utah State)
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR — Miles Byrd (San Diego State)
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR — Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (UNLV)
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR — Jake Hall (New Mexico)
SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR — Karson Templin (Utah State)
COACH OF THE YEAR — Jerrod Calhoun (Utah State)
FIRST TEAM ALL-MW
- Jaden Henley (Grand Canyon)
- Corey Camper Jr. (Nevada)
- Jake Hall (New Mexico)
- Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (UNLV)
- Mason Falslev (Utah State)
SECOND TEAM ALL-MW
- Drew Fielder (Boise State)
- Elijah Price (Nevada)
- Tomislav Buljan (New Mexico)
- Reese Dixon-Waters (San Diego State)
- MJ Collins Jr. (Utah State)
THIRD TEAM ALL-MW
- Jevin Muniz (Colorado State)
- Jake Heidbreder (Fresno State)
- Makaih Williams (Grand Canyon)
- Miles Byrd (San Diego State)
- Colby Garland (San Jose State)
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
- Nana Owusu-Anane (Grand Canyon)
- Elijah Price (Nevada)
- Miles Byrd (San Diego State)
- Tyrin Jones (UNLV)
- Mason Falslev (Utah State)
