Monday, March 9, 2009 | 2:13 p.m.
Members of both UNLV's men's and women's hoops teams made noise on Monday in earning Mountain West Conference postseason honors.
For the 21-9 UNLV men, who enter this weekend's MWC tournament as the No. 5 seed, senior guard Wink Adams popped up on the All-MWC second team, while senior forward René Rougeau landed on the third team.
Adams, a preseason co-Player of the Year in the league alongside BYU's Lee Cummard, leads the Rebels in scoring at 13.9 ppg. He was joined on the second time by New Mexico's Daniel Faris, San Diego State's Kyle Spain and Lorrenzo Wade and TCU's Kevin Langford.
Adams will face Spain and Wade for the second time in six days on Thursday, when the Rebels and Aztecs meet in the MWC tourney quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Rougeau, a former walk-on who is now one of UNLV's most well-rounded performers, was named to the third team along with BYU's Jonathan Tavernari, Colorado State's Marcus Walker, SDSU's Richie Williams and Utah's Lawrence Borha.
The first team was comprised of Cummard, BYU's Jimmer Fredette, New Mexico's Tony Danridge, Utah's Luke Nevill and Wyoming's Brandon Ewing.
Nevill was named the league's Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. TCU's Zvonko Buljan was the Newcomer of the Year, Wyoming's Afam Muojeke was the Freshman of the Year, Utah's Shaun Green was Sixth Man of the Year and New Mexico's Steve Alford was Coach of the Year.
On the women's side, 6-foot forward Jamie Smith, who averages 10.1 ppg and 9.2 rpg for the 12-17 Lady Rebels, was named the league's Freshman of the Year. She became the second Lady Rebel to ever earn conference Freshman of the Year honors.
Meanwhile, 6-foot-3 senior center Shameela Hampton was named to the All-Mountain West third team for the third consecutive season.
Hampton averages 14.1 points nad 8.4 boards for the Rebels, and her 22 double-doubles is the sixth-highest in conference history. Seventh-seeded UNLV opens its MWC Tournament slate at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Mack against sixth-seeded BYU.
Kruger one of 12 finalists for Skip Prosser Award
UNLV fifth-year coach Lon Kruger was announced on Monday as one of 12 finalists for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award, given annually by CollegeInsider.com in conjunction with the Prosser family.
It's awarded to a Division I coach who best represents the high standards of the coaching profession by winning with integrity.
The other finalists include Jim Calhoun (UConn), Jeff Capel (Oklahoma), Ed Conroy (The Citadel), Ed DeChellis (Penn State), Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh), Dino Gaudio (Wake Forest), Tom Izzo (Michigan State), Trent Johnson (LSU), Billy Lange (Navy), Stew Morrill (Utah State) and Bruce Weber (Illinois).
Last year's inaugural award went to Notre Dame's Mike Brey, who will present the award to the 2009 winner at the Final Four in Detroit.
Prosser, the former Wake Forest coach, passed away suddenly on July 26, 2007.
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