HENDERSON, Nev. (March 6, 2023) -- The Big West has announced its 2022-23 men’s basketball all-conference team and individual award winners as the Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, get set to tip off Tuesday at The Dollar Loan Center.

Ajay Mitchell of regular-season co-champion UC Santa Barbara is The Big West Player of the Year. Third-place UC Riverside boasts The Big West Coach of the Year in Mike Magpayo, and The Big West Freshman of the Year in Lachlan Olbrich. The Big West Newcomer of the Year recognition goes to Long Beach State big Lassina Traore.

Of the specialty honors, Cal State Fullerton’s Tory San Antonio is The Big West Best Defensive Player, LBSU’s Aboubacar Traore The Big West Best Hustle Player, and Jamal Hartwell II of UCR The Big West Best Sixth Player. The league’s 11 head coaches voted for all awards.

Mitchell has wasted no time in graduating from 2021-22 Big West Freshman of the Year, right on up to 2022-23 Big West Player of the Year. The sophomore guard out of Ans, Liege, Belgium, has started all 31 games and is sixth in the league in scoring (team-best 15.7 points per game), first in assists per game (5.1), second in total assists (159) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3), third in field goal percentage (49.4), and fourth in free throw percentage (82.2) and steals (43-tied), while pulling down 2.7 rebounds a night. Mitchell has scored in double digits 25 times this year, with a season high of 28 in a Feb. 23 win versus Long Beach State among nine efforts of 20-plus points. An owner of a trio of double-doubles with double-figure assists, Mitchell gives UCSB two Big West Players of the Year over the past three seasons after JaQuori McLaughlin in 2020-21. Eight Gauchos have now earned the distinction all-time.

Lassina Traore is one of just two Beach players who have started all 32 games, and is The Big West’s lone standout averaging a double-double, with 12.9 points (14th) and a league-best 10.6 rebounds per outing. The sophomore forward out of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, who spent the 2021-22 season at Saint Louis, also leads The Big West with 17 double-doubles and a .542 shooting percentage, and is tied for second on the team with 20 blocks. Traore is fifth in Division I in total rebounds (340), eighth in double-doubles, ninth in boards per game, and tied for 55th in field goal percentage. Saturday’s regular-season finale at UC Davis marked a second 20-rebound effort for 2022-23. Nick Faust was the program’s only prior Big West Newcomer of the Year in 2015-16.

A 6-foot-10 forward, Olbrich has appeared in all 32 games, starting 31, and is averaging 11.7 points, a team-best 6.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists while also topping the Highlanders with 15 blocks and shooting .475 from the floor. Olbrich’s left-wing three-pointer that turned a 69-68 deficit into a 71-69 lead with 18.7 seconds to go in overtime en route to a 73-72 triumph at Cal Poly this past Saturday night that clinched the No. 3 seed for The Big West Championship, may very well have cemented the award for the native of Adelaide, Australia, who finished the contest with 14 points, including seven of UCR’s 11 in the extra session, to go with seven rebounds and a game-high three steals. Olbrich, who has three double-doubles, is just the second Big West Freshman of the Year for UCR, after Henrik Thomsen back in 2006-07.

In a second full season at the helm, Magpayo has been voted by peers as Coach of the Year for the first time. Magpayo, who served as the interim head coach in 2020-21 before getting appointed to the full-time position on May 21, 2021, has directed UC Riverside to an overall record of 21-11, the most wins in the program’s Division I era. The Highlanders were picked to finish fifth in The Big West preseason poll, and placed third with a 14-6 mark by virtue of a dramatic 73-72 overtime triumph in San Luis Obispo on Saturday night. This is UCR’s first campaign with double-digit Big West victories, with Magpayo having presided over back-to-back-to-back league ledgers at .600 or better, with increased overall win totals. A winner of five of its last six, UCR takes a No. 3 seed into The Big West tourney for the second time in three years.

Joining Mitchell and Traore on the 2022-23 All-Big West First Team are junior guards DJ Davis of regular-season co-champion UC Irvine, Elijah Pepper of UC Davis and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. of Cal State Fullerton, and the Highlanders’ senior guard, Zyon Pullin. Pepper is The Big West’s lone 20-point-scorer, averaging a career-best 22.5 a night, with Pullin third (18.1), Wrightsell Jr. fifth (16.3) and Davis eighth (15.2).

All six standouts are first-time first-teamers, though Mitchell, Pepper and Pullin made the second team a year ago, with Pepper now a three-time All-Big West honoree as a 2020-21 second-teamer as well. Pullin grabbed an honorable mention that season.

San Antonio is a 6-foot-3 fourth-year senior Titan guard from Moreno Valley who has started all 30 games for the defending Big West tournament champions and contributes 7.2 points and 4.5 rebounds (second on team) over 30.8 minutes per game, with 22 steals and 14 blocks. Cal State Fullerton’s only previous Big West Best Defensive Player was Frank Robinson in 2007-08.

Aboubacar Traore, of no relation to Lassina, although the fellow Ivorian from the coastal city of Abidjan is an acquaintance who helped bring the taller Traore over in the offseason, averages 10.2 points, 8.9 boards and 3.5 assists per game, as the duo are 1-2 in The Big West on the glass. Aboubacar has also started all 32 games, and leads the Beach with 111 assists and 21 blocks while sitting second in steals (39) and shooting .555 from the floor. Traore is LBSU’s first Big West Best Hustle Player since Ron Johnson earned the first two awards in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

UC Riverside’s Hartwell II is a first-year graduate transfer who spent the past four seasons at George Mason. The guard from Inglewood has appeared in all 32 games, coming off the bench in 24 and averaging 8.4 points and 1.0 assists per game. Hartwell II is shooting .419 (49-of-117) from three-point range, and has made 34 of 40 (.850) free throws. UCR’s only other Best Sixth Player was Larry Cunningham in 2004-05.

The All-Big West Second Team consists of junior guards Dawson Baker of UC Irvine, JoVon McClanahan of Hawai’i and Bryce Pope of UC San Diego, along with Australian graduate student Flynn Cameron of UCR and senior UCSB forward Miles Norris. Norris had picked up honorable mentions the prior two years, with Baker doing so for 2021-22. Another 13 were granted honorable mentions on Monday, including Olbrich and Aboubacar Traore, as a total of 24 student-athletes were recognized.

The Hercules Tires Big West Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday night, March 7, from The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. All nine games will feature live video coverage across ESPN platforms, with Saturday’s final moving up to a primetime 6:30 p.m. PT tipoff and again airing live on ESPN2. Roxy Bernstein and Corey Williams will have the call.

2022-23 Big West Men's Basketball All-Conference Team
Player of the Year:	Ajay Mitchell, UC Santa Barbara
Coach of the Year:	Mike Magpayo, UC Riverside
Newcomer of the Year:	Lassina Traore, Long Beach State
Freshman of the Year:	Lachlan Olbrich, UC Riverside
Specialty Awards
Best Sixth Player:	Jamal Hartwell II, UC Riverside
Best Defensive Player:	Tory San Antonio, Cal State Fullerton
Best Hustle Player:	Aboubacar Traore, Long Beach State
All-Big West First Team
Student-Athlete	Year	Position	Institution	Hometown
DJ Davis	Jr.	Guard	UC Irvine	Moreno Valley, Calif.
Ajay Mitchell	So.	Guard	UC Santa Barbara	Ans, Liege, Belgium
Elijah Pepper	Jr.	Guard	UC Davis	Selah, Wash.
Zyon Pullin	Sr.	Guard	UC Riverside	Pleasant Hill, Calif.
Lassina Traore	So.	Forward	Long Beach State	Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
Latrell Wrightsell Jr.	Jr.	Guard	Cal State Fullerton	Omaha, Neb.
All-Big West Second Team
Student-Athlete	Year	Position	Institution	Hometown
Dawson Baker	Jr.	Guard	UC Irvine	Coto de Caza, Calif.
Flynn Cameron	Gr.	Guard	UC Riverside	Gold Coast, Australia
JoVon McClanahan	Jr.	Guard	Hawai’i	Vallejo, Calif.
Miles Norris	Sr.	Forward	UC Santa Barbara	San Diego, Calif.
Bryce Pope	R-Jr.	Guard	UC San Diego	San Diego, Calif.

Honorable Mention: Roddie Anderson III (UC San Diego), Christian Anigwe (UC Davis), Noel Coleman (Hawai’i), Antavion Collum (CSU Bakersfield), Pierre Crockrell II (UC Irvine), Kamaka Hepa (Hawai’i), Ty Johnson (UC Davis), Max Jones (Cal State Fullerton), Francis Nwaokorie (UC San Diego), Lachlan Olbrich (UC Riverside), Aboubacar Traore (Long Beach State), Marcus Tsohonis (Long Beach State), Atin Wright (CSUN);