In the latest addition to the annals of “Only in the Mountain West,” we give you the 2019-20 men’s basketball coaches postseason awards.

Malachi Flynn was named player of the year, as expected. He’s also a newcomer to the conference this season but somehow the guy tabbed as its best player is not its best newcomer. Nevada’s Jalen Harris is.

“Everybody gets a ribbon?” SDSU coach Brian Dutcher hypothesized.

Flynn also was named defensive player of the year … even though he regularly does not cover the opponent’s best perimeter player. Teammate KJ Feagin does.


Flynn admitted as much shortly after the awards were announced Tuesday morning, tweeting: “Blessed to get this award but my dawg (Feagin) deserve this one without a doubt!!”

Blessed to get this award but my dawg @kjfeag deserve this one without a doubt!! https://t.co/jfmC5oyv2X — Malachi Flynn (@malachi_flynn3) March 3, 2020

He expanded before practice Tuesday: “That one was definitely a surprise. A lot of things KJ does goes unseen in a lot of people’s eyes. We know his value especially on that end of the floor, night in and night out. I thought it should have been his, to be honest.”

Said Feagin: “It’s a classy move by him and I appreciate it. It’s not easy to shine the light on somebody else when you’re getting the light shined on you. For him to give me that moment while he’s getting credit is a testament to the type of person he is.”

The coaches and media postseason awards have been separate since 2015. The media awards were announced Monday, and one major difference is transparency. The Mountain West does not release individual ballots or vote totals; the media does.

The other awards were the same: Dutcher as coach of the year, Colorado State’s Isaiah Stevens as freshman of the year, Nevada’s Nisre Zouzoua as sixth man of the year.


The all-conference teams differed slightly, most notably in that SDSU’s Matt Mitchell made the coaches’ first team and the media’s second team. Yanni Wetzell was selected second team by the coaches and third team by the media. The media also picked Utah State’s Neemias Queta as defensive player of the year, with Flynn and Feagin tying for second.

It was a toss-up, though, which was the most head-scratching selection by the coaches: Harris over Flynn as newcomer of the year, or Flynn over Feagin as defensive player of the year.

Flynn won both player and newcomer of the year in the media awards, and the conference confirmed it does not have a rule that the same player can’t win both. “The coaches voted this way,” a Mountain West spokesperson said in an email response to a question from the Union-Tribune, “and Jalen Harris had the most votes.”

How come?


“Maybe the coaches in the back of their minds all felt Malachi was going to be player of the year and they

wanted to divide the wealth up a little bit,” Dutcher said. “Maybe they felt that might be a good second-place finish for Harris to say, ‘Let’s not give Malachi both of them. We know Malachi is the MVP and we’ll give Harris the newcomer, and that way they’ll both enjoy some fruits of their labor.’ I don’t mind that.”

More confounding to Dutcher was defensive player of the year.

“I’m happy for Malachi,” Dutcher said, “but obviously we know our team better than most and we felt KJ was deserving of being defensive player of the year. We don’t think it’s a slight to him that he didn’t get it, because the people that value you the most are your coaches and teammates. And they understand how valuable he is to all of us.”

Feagin routinely covered the six guards on the coaches’ all-conference team and routinely shut them down. An example: Despite giving up six inches, he held Boise State’s Jessup to seven points on 2 of 12 shooting in their first meeting. In the second game, the Aztecs switched all screens to deter drives, and Boise State had Jessup dribble off ball screens to draw other defenders – and finished with 22 points.


Flynn had 51 steals to Feagin’s 18, plus a better defensive efficiency rating in some metrics. But those numbers are skewed by whom they were guarding. Because Flynn was covering a lesser offensive threat, he could gamble more for steals. And because Feagin was covering the better scorer, his efficiency rating was lower.

SDSU’s media relations office promoted Feagin, not Flynn, as a defensive player of the year candidate in emails sent to media members last week. One stat: “According to Synergy, in the 231 possessions in which the guy he is guarding has ended the possession, he has allowed just 54-of-194 field goal shooting (27.8 percent) and 0.632 points per possession. Among players with at least 225 defensive possessions, his defensive field goal percentage is second nationally.”

Mitchell was asked who’s the best defender on a team ranked fourth nationally in defensive efficiency. Feagin, he replied.

“It’s all motivation heading forward,” said Feagin, who was watched practice Tuesday while rehabbing the ankle

he sprained in Saturday’s 83-76 win at Nevada. “I’m glad the award is in an Aztec uniform. It’s not anything against Mal or to belittle him, but it’s a little slap in the face in terms of the other coaches not taking notice of what I’ve done to some of their best players. I’ve stopped a lot of their game plans.


“It’s just motivation going into the tournament, and it’s the perfect time for motivation.”