JT Toppin Named Mountain West Freshman of the Week
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – New Mexico’s JT Toppin was named Mountain West Freshman of the Week, the conference announced Monday. Toppin was honored for the fifth time this season after helping the Lobos record their first ranked win of the season against No. 19 San Diego State.
With the honor, Toppin becomes the first player to win the Mountain West Freshman of the Week honor five times over the first 10 weeks of the season. He becomes just the fourth freshman to be recognized at least five times in a season, joining Tyson Degenhart (Boise State, nine times in 2021-22), Darrion Williams (Nevada, six times in 2022-23) and Rytis Petraitis (Air Force, six times in 2022-23).
Last week, as the Lobos fell 83-73 at UNLV before the 88-70 home win over the Aztecs, Toppin averaged 16.5 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. In Tuesday’s loss in Las Vegas, Toppin had 16 points and six rebounds. On Saturday, Toppin starred in the win over the reigning conference champions with 17 points and career highs of 16 rebounds (nine offensive) and five blocks. It was the first 17pt/16reb/5blk game nationally by a freshman in two years, since Gonzaga standout (and future NBA No. 2 overall pick) Chet Holmgren accomplished the feat against BYU in 2022. Toppin is the first freshman in the nation to post 17/16/5 against a ranked opponent since 2020 (Isaiah Stewart of Washington vs. Oregon) and the first player of any class to do so in the Mountain West since 2015 (Christian Wood of UNLV vs. Fresno State). Toppin’s 16 rebounds were one shy of Kenny Thomas’ UNM freshman record (17 vs. Utah in the 1996 WAC Tournament final), while his nine offensive rebounds tied Thomas’ freshman record from that game. With the double-double against SDSU, he now has five double-doubles this season, including becoming the first UNM freshman to have two double-doubles against ranked opponents.
New Mexico (14-3, 2-2 MW) hosts another ranked opponent on Tuesday as No. 20 Utah State (16-1, 4-0 MW) brings the nation’s longest win streak (15 games) to The Pit. Game time is 8:30 p.m. and tickets are on sale now at GoLobos.com/tickets.