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From the Western Athletic Conference office:

SMU’S ROSS NAMED WAC MEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

DENVER - SMU guard/forward Quinton Ross has been named the Western Athletic
Conference men’s basketball player of the week for January 20-26.

Ross, a senior from Dallas, Texas (Kimball HS), averaged 26.0 points and
6.5 rebounds in a pair of road wins at Rice and Tulsa. Against Rice, he
scored 27 points, pulled down nine rebounds and made all 12 of his free
throws. In the Mustangs’ first ever win at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa,
Ross scored 25 points and played 43 minutes in the overtime victory. For
the week, he shot 16-of-30 (.533) from the field, 3-of-7 (.429) from
three-point range, 17-of-18 (.944) from the line and averaged 2.5 assists,
2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.

It was Ross’ second WAC player of the week award this year.

The other nominations were junior forward Renaldo Major, Fresno State;
junior guard/forward Carl English, Hawai‘i; senior guard Michael Wilder,
Louisiana Tech; sophomore guard Kirk Snyder, Nevada; sophomore forward
Michael Harris, Rice; and freshman guard Giovanni St. Amant, UTEP.

Good to see my favorite player where he belongs - atop the conference scoring list and recognized for what he is - the best player in the WAC.

I'll second that. As I think Hannibal used to say on the other board, Q is the truth. First time I saw Q in high school matched up against Antonio Falu from Houston, who was a top recruit at the time, it was obvious Q was going to be a good college player. Q has been better than good for SMU.

Couldn't agree more. Q is the toughest skinny guy I've ever seen. If every player had the heart he has, we'd be in the NCAAs every year. I'm glad to see him getting the recognition he deserves!

As I watched the Rice game the other night, I couldn't help but think that Q does not appear to have gained a single pound in his 4 yrs at SMU. No question in my mind he's got the skills to be a good pro prospect. I've always felt he was a better player than Sasser, but wonder if he will be physical enough to make it at the next level?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by PonyPride:
<B>From the Western Athletic Conference office:

SMU’S ROSS NAMED WAC MEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

DENVER - SMU guard/forward Quinton Ross has been named the Western Athletic
Conference men’s basketball player of the week for January 20-26.

Ross, a senior from Dallas, Texas (Kimball HS), averaged 26.0 points and
6.5 rebounds in a pair of road wins at Rice and Tulsa. Against Rice, he
scored 27 points, pulled down nine rebounds and made all 12 of his free
throws. In the Mustangs’ first ever win at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa,
Ross scored 25 points and played 43 minutes in the overtime victory. For
the week, he shot 16-of-30 (.533) from the field, 3-of-7 (.429) from
three-point range, 17-of-18 (.944) from the line and averaged 2.5 assists,
2.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.

It was Ross’ second WAC player of the week award this year.

The other nominations were junior forward Renaldo Major, Fresno State;
junior guard/forward Carl English, Hawai‘i; senior guard Michael Wilder,
Louisiana Tech; sophomore guard Kirk Snyder, Nevada; sophomore forward
Michael Harris, Rice; and freshman guard Giovanni St. Amant, UTEP.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I just wanted to say that today I had the pleasure of meeting Quinton Ross in the Fondren Library. I was in the presence of greatness. He was modest and very polite. I shook his hand and commended him on the great win Saturday. I feel like an idiot now because I didn't get an autograph. Would that be dumb since he's not in the NBA yet? I also didn't congratulate him on being WAC player of the week and I feel bad about that but I was really nervous for some reason. I guess I really look up to the guy. Anyways, I was impressed at how he took me. He didn't act like he thought I was a weirdo. He just replied "well thank you man" and I went on back to my studying. I wish I had had something for him to sign and I wish I had let him know how much I appreciate getting the oppurtunity to watch him play. Oh well. Maybe I'll see him again.

Your first comment is the most telling - Q is one of the nicest guys I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. He is first-class, all the way.

No, it's not wrong to get his autograph. After all, he will be in the NBA one day, and you'll be the first to have it. Get a nice picture of him and then stalk him in the stacks at Fondren Library.

Congratulations also to Sara Nordenstam, Mindi Pukstas, Lavada Hill (womens long jump), and Einar Hjartarsorn (mens high jump) who all won WAC Athlete of the Week awards in their respective sports, Swimming, Cross Coutry, and Track and Field.
Also conratulations to Sarah Davis who was nominated in womens Basketball.

From the WAC:

SMU - the Mustangs swept their WAC road trip last week for the first time since beating Fresno State and UTEP on the road, Feb. 17-19, 2000 ... Quinton Ross is the WAC’s leading scorer with 20.2 points per contests ... Ross has started 76 straight games, the longest current streak in the WAC ... Ross made a WAC-high 12 free throws (12-12) last week against Rice ... the Mustangs improved to 4-0 in overtime games this season after beating Tulsa on Saturday ... the four overtime games and four wins broke school records in a season ... after averaging 4.8 points in his first five contests, freshman Bryan Hopkins is averaging 18.4 points over his last nine
games.

If Quinton maintains his current scoring average of 20 pts/game and the Ponies play the minimum number of games remaining on the schedule (meaning a 1st round loss in WAC tourney and no post-season), he will pass all but Sasser, Phillips, Koncak and Jim Krebs and become SMU's 5th all-time leading scorer. That's a lot of "ifs", but Q actually has a chance to become the 3rd all-time leading scorer in school history. That 1st scenario would have him finish with 1737 pts, whereas Krebs had 1753. Koncak stands at 1784. Of course, these records should have an asterisk by them pointing out that the great Jim Krebs and Gene Phillips, the most prolific scoring machine in school history, racked up their numbers in only 3 yrs. Still an acknowledgement that Q will leave here as probably one of the top 10 players ever to wear the SMU uniform.

Q is a total stud, deserves all the accolades he gets, and plays within his game. Too bad Hancock and Sass didn't include him as much as they should have.

It turns out I will get another chance to get Q's autograph very soon. I'll give everyone more details when it becomes official.

exciting, huh?