JT Toppin Earns Sixth Mountain West Freshman of the Week Honor

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 second straight week and the sixth time this season after helping the Lobos down No. 16 Utah State and win at Air Force.

With the honor, Toppin becomes the first player to win the Mountain West Freshman of the Week honor six times over the first 11 weeks of the season. He becomes just the fourth freshman to be recognized at least six 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 downed No. 16 Utah State 99-86 in The Pit for their highest ranked win in five seasons, Toppin had 12 points on 5-6 shooting from the floor, along with five rebounds. Toppin had one of the best games of his freshman season on Saturday in the 85-66 victory at Air Force, scoring 25 points on 12-15 shooting and grabbing 13 rebounds. It was just the second 25 & 13 game by a freshman in UNM history, joining Kenny Thomas (30 & 17 vs. Utah in the 1996 WAC Tournament final). Toppin is the first Mountain West freshman to have a 25 & 13 game since 2017-18 (UNLV’s Brandon McCoy) and the first to accomplish the feat against a conference opponent since 2015-16 (Nevada’s Cameron Oliver). It was Toppin’s sixth double-double of the year, tied for the most in the nation by a freshman this season and one away from Thomas’ school record of seven double-doubles as a freshman.

New Mexico (16-3, 4-2 MW) visits San Jose State on Wednesday night before returning home for a pair of games at The Pit, hosting Nevada on Sunday, January 28 and Boise State on Wednesday, January 31. Tickets for both of those games are on sale now at GoLobos.com/tickets.