The first big date of the upcoming season — media days — has officially come and gone, where select media members submits their projections from the upcoming season, such as each team's standing in the conference, All-Conference teams and who they believe will win each award.
As a site, we will be doing our annual picks in the coming weeks. However, the conference typically has an unusual structure to their All-Conference team — they just have one team, and 11 players, unlike the typical five, made the team this year.
That team reads as follows:
AJ Storr, UNLV
Dylan Darling, Grand Canyon
Efe Demirel, Grand Canyon
Elijah Price, Nevada
Jaden Henley, Grand Canyon
Jake Hall, New Mexico
Makkah Williams, Grand Canyon
Naz Meyer, Wyoming
Tyrin Jones, UNLV
Uriah Tenette, New Mexico
Vaughn Weems, Nevada
Four of the GCU's five projected starters — with the final spot open for competition — made the team. The other programs with multiple preseason All-Conference honors include Nevada, UNLV and New Mexico, who each took two apiece. Wyoming's Naz Meyer, who averaged 12.9 points and 4.8 rebounds as a freshman last year, rounds out the aforementioned team.
However, not every player who made this team is set to suit up next month — at least not yet.
Believe it or not, the two biggest names that tested the NBA Draft waters last summer — Henley and former Utah State guard MJ Collins — both tried to return to school. There was back-and-forth rulings on Collins' ineligibility with Cincinnati, but he's still not eligible to suit up with his new program. The same is true for Henley, who elected to come back to Grand Canyon.
It's college basketball's biggest problem right now, aside from the conference realignment that surfaces over every sport, and the tournament expansion which in inevitably hurt the new-look MW way more than it helps.
If he is eligible, Henley's toe-to-toe with New Mexico's Jake Hall for the player of the year award. He averaged 17.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.6 steals per game last year. He's a great athlete, an excellent defender and an improved slasher. Since he entered the MW prior to 2024-25 with UNLV, Henley's drastically improved his creativity as a ballhandler, which allowed him to get to his spots with relative ease last year.
Objectively, as much of an issue I have with players returning back to school after going through the draft process, him suiting up elevates the conference's floor and ceiling, especially with how loaded the 'Lopes' roster is.
Storr, an Ole Miss transfer, remains ineligible as well. He's still eligible to practice with the program, but is not eligible to play in any exhibitions or regular season games.
Storr, 23, is entering his fifth program in his fifth season of eligibility. He began his career at St. John's before one-year stops at Wisconsin, Kansas and Ole Miss, where he led the Rebels in scoring last year. With the Runnin' Rebels, Storr also projects to become their leading scorer — if he's eligible, of course.
This is an indictment on where the sports are, in general. Media members shouldn't be shamed for voting players on who's ineligible, nor should players for trying to do what's best for them. Instead, the NCAA is in a real pickle, and until there's some guard rails, this problem will continue to persist.
