Honors rolling in for Owls basketball guard Mike Wilks

Honors
rolling in for Owls basketball guard Mike Wilks
…………………………………………………………………

The honors are
rolling in for Rice senior Mike Wilks, a guard for the Owls
basketball team.

Wilks was named
to the 2001 Western Athletic Conference First Team and the
All-Defensive team with selections made by the conference’s
nine head coaches.

Wilks also was
named the player of the year in the Western Athletic Conference
by College Insider, a Web-based college basketball magazine.

College Insider
is one of the most popular college basketball magazines
on the Internet, especially among head coaches. Known for
its “Mid-Major Poll” and the “Runway to the
Fashionable Four,” College Insider and editor-in-chief
Joe Dwyer are quickly becoming a creditable forum for fans
and coaches. Despite the Owls’ 13-13 record, Dwyer
felt that Wilks was the best the WAC had to offer.

“The bottom
line is that with the injuries to (T.J.) McKenzie and (Omar-Seli)
Mance, someone like Mike is going to be a marked man,”
Dwyer said. “Even with the defense targeting Mike,
he’s still getting the job done and putting up the
points.”

Head coach Willis
Wilson felt that Wilks’ honor was well deserved. “It’s
outstanding. There’s not a guy that is more deserving
of the honor of being selected player of the year,”
Wilson said. “He’s meant as much to our team as
any other player in the league has meant to their team.
With the wins we had this season that total would be considerably
less without the play of Mike.”

Wilks leads
the Owls with 20.5 points per game. Even though his overall
scoring average ranks second in the Western Athletic Conference,
the Milwaukee native has averaged 21.0 points per league
game, which is tops in the conference. His status on the
All-Defensive team was powered by his 56 steals on the season.
Wilks has compiled 181 steals during his Rice career, second-best
in university history.