SAN RAFAEL, Calif. —
Xander McNally, who leads NCAA Division II men's basketball in steals, and teammate
Jacob Noisat, the leading scorer and rebounder on the Dominican University of California basketball team this season, have been named second team All-Pacific West Conference.
The league made the all-conference team announcement this morning live on its PacWest Magazine Radio Show on KQCK in San Tan Valley, Ariz. Voting was conducted earlier this week by league coaches.
McNally, a senior out of The Branson School in Ross, had the most dominating performance in a statistical category – steals – than any player in the league. Though he played on a team that rarely pressed defensively and did not play up-tempo, the 6-foot-2 guard leads the nation with a school record 104 steals in 26 games, a 4.0 average. His 104 steals overall was 57 more than his nearest competitor in the conference, California Baptist's Ivan Patterson who had 47. In league play, McNally averaged 4.2 steals a game to Patterson's 1.7.
Averaging only five shots a game, McNally was the only player on the 14-member first and second all-leagues teams not to average in double figures. He was sixth in the league in assists (3.7 per game) and, at just 6-2 , tied for eighth in the league in blocked shots and tied for 12th in the league in defensive rebounding . In McNally's last five games, he averaged 6.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.8 steals, 3.6 assists and almost a blocked shot a game.
McNally led the PacWest in steals as a senior and a sophomore and would have led the league in steals last season as a junior had he had enough games to qualify. He missed the first 10 games rehabilitating from wrist surgery following an injury in the San Francisco Pro-Am League.
Noisat, a transfer from Chabot College in Hayward who prepped at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa, made the quickest impact on the Penguins this season. With a new coach and a new team playing 10 of its first 11 games of the season on the road and predicted to finish last in the conference, Noisat led the Penguins in scoring and rebounding in preseason against a difficult schedule. Of their first 13 games, the Penguins played six against teams that last week were ranked in the Top 10 in the NCAA Div. II West Region rankings. In those six games, Noisat averaged 11.5 points (shooting 60 percent from the floor) and seven rebounds and one assist a game.
The 6-foot-8 center had 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds in his PacWest debut in a win over Grand Canyon Jan. 3. He had a career-high 24 points against Academy of Art, capping a stretch of six PacWest games in which Noisat averaged 18.5 points and almost seven rebounds a game while shooting 62 percent from the floor.
Overall this season, Noisat finished 20th in the PacWest in scoring (11.2 ppg), 12th in rebounding (5.7 rpg), and sixth in field goal percentage (.540). He was named to the PacWest Weekly Top 10 Honor Roll a team-high seven times this season.
BYU-Hawaii's Tsung-Hsein (Jet) Chang was named PacWest Player of the Year. Chang also has been selected to the NCAA Div. II Daktronics West Region first team.
Junior Luke Evans of California Baptist was named PacWest Newcomer of the Year and Lee Bailey of Chaminade and Jerome Garrison of Grand Canyon, were voted Co-Freshmen of the Year.
Dixie State's Jon Judkin, who coached the Red Storm to a 13-2 record and the league championship after the Penguins upset them 73-72 in overtime on Jan. 5 in the Conlan Center, was named Coach of the Year for the fourth year in a row.
