UNM LOBOS BASKETBALL
Jake Hall wins Mountain West Freshman of the Year, joins UNM Lobo teammate Tomislav Buljan on all-conference team
Hall is third freshman named All-MW First Team, joining a short list that includes Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Bennett.
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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.
He 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.
NOTE: 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.
While 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.
Thursday’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
Jaden Henley, Sr., G, Grand Canyon
Corey Camper Jr., Gr., G, Nevada
Jake Hall, Fr., G, New Mexico
Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, Jr., G, UNLV
Mason Falslev, Jr., G, Utah State
Second Team
Drew Fielder, Jr., F, Boise State
Elijah Price, So., F, Nevada
Tomislav Buljan, Fr., F, New Mexico
Reese Dixon-Waters, Sr., G, San Diego State
MJ Collins, Sr., G, Utah State
Third Team
Jevin Muniz, Sr., G, Colorado State
Jake Heidbreder, Sr., G, Fresno State
Makaih Williams, Jr., G, Grand Canyon
Miles Byrd, Jr., G, San Diego State
Colby Garland, Jr., G, San Jose State
Defensive Team
Nana Owusu-Anane, Gr., F, Grand Canyon
Elijah Price, So., F, Nevada
Miles Byrd, Jr., G, San Diego State
Tyrin Jones, Fr., F, UNLV
Mason Falslev, Jr., G, Utah State
Honorable Mention
Dylan Andrews, Sr., G, Boise State
Javan Buchanan, Sr., F, Boise State
Brandon Rechsteiner, Jr., G, Colorado State
DeShawn Gory, Fr., F, Fresno State
Nana Owusu-Anane, Gr., F, Grand Canyon
BJ Davis, Jr., G, San Diego State
Tyrin Jones, Fr., F, UNLV
Drake Allen, Gr., G, Utah State
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 ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
