WCC Announces 2023-24 Men's Basketball All-Conference Awards (2024)

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – No. 23 Saint Mary’s claimed half of the 2023-24 West Coast Conference men's basketball major awards, as the Conference announced its all-conference teams and major award winners on Tuesday. Randy Bennett won WCC Coach of the Year for the third straight year, Augustas Marciulionis was tabbed WCC Player of the Year and Mitchell Saxen won WCC Defensive Player of the Year. San Francisco picked up two major awards with Jonathan Mogbo being named the WCC Newcomer of the Year and Ryan Beasley winning WCC Freshman of the Year. San Diego's Deuce Turner won WCC Sixth Man of the Year.

All six major individual awards – along with the All-West Coast Conference Teams and the All-Freshman Team – were voted on solely by the league’s nine head coaches.

In his 23rd season guiding the Gaels, Bennett earned his sixth WCC Coach of the Year accolade. Bennett guided Saint Mary's to a 16-game winning streak, the best in the nation this season, including winning the first 15 WCC games as the Gaels claimed the conference regular season crown. Bennett's defense has ranked No. 2 in the country for most of the season (58.5 ppg), as well as the top-ranked defense in conference games (58.4 ppg). For the second straight year, Bennett has his Gaels heading to the conference championship as the No. 1 seed.

Marciulionis started every game at point guard for the Gaels. His 5.1 assists per game average ranked second in the WCC, while his 12.4 points per game average ranked second on his team. He scored 20 points or more on four occasions, including a career-best 28 points against Pepperdine on Feb. 15. He garnered his first two collegiate double-doubles in both contests against San Diego. He ended the regular season in the top three in the WCC in assists (159), assists per game (5.1), assist to turnover ratio (2.7), steals (45) and steals per game (1.45).

Saxen started every game, finishing as the team’s leading rebounder at 7.3 boards per game. He was also third on the team in scoring at 11.5 points per game. Arguably his best game of the season came against UNLV during the Jerry Colangelo Classic, where he scored 23 points and posted 16 rebounds, including the game-winning layup in double overtime. For his efforts, he earned both WCC Player of the Week and Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week honors. The double-double was one of five for the season and 13 for his career. Defensively, he swatted 42 blocks, tying for a league best this season. This is the second straight year that a Gael won Defensive Player of the Year (Logan Johnson).

One of the WCC's standout players in his first season in the league, Mogbo has started every game for USF this season, pacing the WCC in rebounding (10.3), field goal percentage (.643) and steals (1.7). He finished the regular season ninth in the nation in field goal percentage,ninth in double-doubles (16) and 12th in rebounding. He was named WCC Player of the Week three times during the regular season. Mogbo tallied double figures in 26 of USF's 31 games and boasted 10 or more rebounds in 18 games.

Another first-year Don who made a name for himself, Beasley played in 28 games this season. He averaged 8.1 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.3 steals. He scored in double figures 11 times, including a career-high 20 points against Purdue Fort Wayne. He was named WCC Freshman of the Week twice during the regular season.

Turner scored 30 points or more three times this season. He averaged over 25 minutes played per game, along with a season average of 15.9 points per game. He scored 34 points against Saint Mary's on Jan. 4, 30 against Santa Clara on Feb. 17 and 30 in the regular season finale against Pacific on March 2. Turner's efforts helped the Toreros win 17 games during the regular season, their most wins since 2018-19.

Saint Mary's and Gonzaga led the way with three first-team all-conference selections each, while the Dons notched two. Five of the first-team honorees were selected to the 2023-34 WCC Preseason Team, as well (Graham Ike, Aidan Mahaney, Ryan Nembhard, Saxen, Anton Watson).

This is the second straight year Mahaney and Saxen made the all-conference first team.

2023-24 All-WCC Men’s Basketball Major Awards
Player of the Year: Augustas Marciulionis, Saint Mary's
Coach of the Year: Randy Bennett, Saint Mary's
Defensive Player of the Year: Mitchell Saxen, Saint Mary's
Newcomer of the Year: Jonathan Mogbo, San Francisco
Sixth Man of the Year: Deuce Turner, San Diego
Freshman of the Year: Ryan Beasley, San Francisco

2023-24 All-WCC Men’s Basketball First Team

2023-24 All-WCC Men’s Basketball Second Team

2023-24 All-WCC Men’s Basketball Freshman Team

2023-24 WCC Men’s Basketball Honorable Mention Selections
Joshua Jefferson, Saint Mary's; Houston Mallette, Pepperdine; Carlos Marshall Jr., Santa Clara; Alex Merkviladze, LMU; Jevon Porter, Pepperdine; Ndewedo Newbury, San Francisco; Malik Thomas, San Francisco; Christoph Tilly, Santa Clara