Magoon Gwath wasn’t even considered the best freshman on his own team, according to the Mountain West preseason basketball awards.
Five months later, San Diego State’s 7-foot redshirt freshman is the conference’s freshman of the year, defensive player of the year, a member of the all-defensive team and an honorable mention all-conference selection in awards announced Tuesday morning.
And all that, despite missing the final four conference games (and nearly all of a fifth) with a hyperextended right knee that has rendered his status “day-to-day” for Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal against Boise State at the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas.
“The redshirt year helped him, even though he was injured,” Aztecs coach Brian Dutcher said. “He did get back and got some college reps against Jaedon LeDee, which will test anybody. Then he came out here and was trying to find a rhythm as a young freshman. And then arguably the last seven or eight games he played before he got injured, he was maybe one of the best players in the conference.
“Magoon is everything we hoped he would be, and now we have to keep him on that path.”
Will that path run through Montezuma Mesa next season?
“Right now, I’m looking more towards trying to get to the pros,” Gwath said in his first media availability since injuring the knee Feb. 22 at Utah State.
Asked if he considers himself ready for the NBA or needs another year of development in college, he said: “I guess we’ll have to find out.”
Teammate Miles Byrd, who made second team all-conference as well as the all-defensive team, has also said he’ll test the draft waters this spring but will play at SDSU next season – and not enter the transfer portal – should he return to college.
Gwath offered no such pledge Tuesday. His priority of first receiving NBA , then, likely will push a decision about any college future into April or May.
“Miles Byrd will do the same thing,” Dutcher said. “If you get to the (NBA Draft) combine somehow, and you have a good two or three days, you can play yourself into the first round. … I embrace that. I want our guys to aspire to greatness, to aspire to the highest level of basketball, which is the NBA. Magoon’s first task if to get healthy enough where he looks really good, and I think we can do that for him.”
Three SDSU players appeared on the various Mountain West postseason award categories, which for first time since 2015 are not separate honors from the coaches and media but combined.
Florida Atlantic transfer guard Nick Boyd was named second-team all-conference but, curiously, was pipped for newcomer of the year by a guy on the third team, Wyoming guard Obi Agbim.
That means Boyd received more votes than Agbim in all-conference balloting but Agbim got more for the top newcomer.
Agbim was a Division II transfer to Wyoming who ranks third in the Mountain West in scoring (17.8 points) and ninth nationally in 3-point accuracy (44.4%). Boyd is 13th in scoring (13.2) and sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.27-to-1), and he played on a far better team that swept the Cowboys during the regular season. SDSU finished fourth at 14-6 and is in line to reach the NCAA Tournament. Wyoming is ninth at 5-15.
Since Feb. 11, Boyd is one of two players in Division I averaging at least 17.0 points per game, shooting 50% overall and 38.5% from 3, with 38 assists and six steals. The other: Duke’s Cooper Flagg, the ACC Player of the Year and a leading candidate for national player of the year.
“I don’t know, I don’t really care,” Boyd said of ballot incongruency. “I’m just trying to win the Mountain West Conference Tournament now. It is what it is, and I guess I’ve got something more to prove. I feel like I’m one of the best players in the league no matter what – first team, second team, third team, fourth team.
“I’ve got something to prove Thursday at 2:30. I’ll be ready to go.”
New Mexico won the outright regular-season title, and to the victor went the spoils. Junior guard Donovan Dent is player of the year, and Richard Pitino coach of the year (an award named in honor of former SDSU coach Steve Fisher). Senior center Nelly Junior Joseph was on the five-player first team.
They’re ed by Colorado State guard Nique Clifford, Boise State forward Tyson Degenhart and Utah State guard Ian Martinez.
The second team: Byrd, Boyd, Nevada forward Nick Davidson, Boise State guard Alvaro Cardenas and Utah State guard Mason Falslev.
Boise State’s Javan Buchanan, an NAIA transfer, was named sixth man of the year.
Gwath, who weeks ago broke Skylar Spencer’s Mountain West blocks record by a freshman and ranks seventh nationally in blocks per game, becomes the eighth Aztec named the defensive player of the year and fourth straight. He is the fifth Aztec named Mountain West Freshman of the Year and the first since Jeremy Hemsley in 2016.
Teammate Pharaoh Compton, a four-star recruit from Las Vegas, was the preseason freshman of the year. Gwath, after missing parts or all of the last two seasons with injuries, was a forgotten man.
Gwath was made available to the media Tuesday on the condition that he would not discuss his injury status for this week, although media did observe him warming up with the team at the start of practice.
“It’s been really fun out there, getting to finally play basketball after not playing since high school,” Gwath said. “There have been a lot of ups and downs, but it’s been a fun journey.”
2024-25 Mountain West Conference awards
Player of the Year: Donovan Dent, New Mexico
Defensive Player of the Year: Magoon Gwath, SDSU
Newcomer of the Year: Obi Agbim, Wyoming
Sixth Man of the Year: Javan Buchanan, Boise State
Freshman of the Year: Magoon Gwath, SDSU
Coach of the Year: Richard Pitino, New Mexico
First team
Tyson Degenhart, Boise State
Nique Clifford, Colorado State
Donovan Dent, New Mexico
Nelly Junior Joseph, New Mexico
Ian Martinez, Utah State
Second team
Alvaro Cardenas, Boise State
Nick Davidson, Nevada
Nick Boyd, SDSU
Miles Byrd, SDSU
Mason Falslev, Utah State
Third team
Ethan Taylor, Air Force
Kobe Sanders, Nevada
Josh Uduje, San José State
Dedan Thomas Jr., UNLV
Obi Agbim, Wyoming
Honorable mention
Kyan Evans, Colorado State
Tru Washington, New Mexico
Magoon Gwath, SDSU
All-defensive Team
Nique Clifford, Colorado State
Nelly Junior Joseph, New Mexico
Miles Byrd, SDSU
Magoon Gwath, SDSU
Mason Falslev, Utah State
