Wyoming’s JayDee Luster is MW Defensive Player of the Year

Basketball great John Wooden said, "Never make excuses. You're friends don't need them and your foes won't believe them."

At a height of just 5-9 it would have been pretty easy for senior Wyoming point guard JayDee Luster to make excuses for himself. But he never did and that's part of why he was chosen as the 2011-12 Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year.

Head Coach Larry Shyatt repeatedly tasked Luster with guarding top scorers in the conference such as Wes Eikmeier and Chase Tapley and for good reason. He held the opposing MW player he guarded to below their season scoring average in 10 of 14 games.

Offensively, Luster ranked fifth in the league in assist average (3.7) and contributed 5.1 points per game. As the court general he goes by the mantra, "hit singles, not home runs" which was given to him by the coaching staff. So he's not going to be that flashy. He won't draw too many gasps from the crowd. He's just going to frustrate the heck out of the other team while doing all he can to get the win for the Pokes.

Luster was also named to the All-Defensive Team and Honorable Mention All-MW as selected by the league's head coaches and a select media panel. Teammate Leonard Washington was picked Second-Team All-MW and Pako Cruz joined Luster on the Honorable Mention List. Wyoming opens play at the 2012 Conoco MW Championships against UNLV on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Three members of the Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team garnered postseason honors. Junior Chaundra Sewell was a Second Team All-MW selection and named to the All-Defensive Team after being named Honorable Mention All-Conference a year ago. In addition, true freshman Kayla Woodward earned Third Team All-Conference, while junior Ashley Sickles was named Honorable Mention All-MW. The Cowgirls open up play at the Mountain West Conference Tournament Wednesday, March 7, in Las Vegas. Their first-round game will be against TCU at 3:30 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center.