2015 Big West Men's Basketball All-Specialty Awards
The 2015 Big West Men’s Basketball All-Specialty Awards announcement featured representatives from three different schools. UC Davis junior Josh Fox claimed the Best Sixth Player award, while Hawai‘i junior Roderick Bobbitt secured Defensive Player of the Year accolades. A repeat selection earned the Best Hustle award in UC Santa Barbara senior Zalmico Harmon.
The conference’s nine head coaches voted on the awards, but were not allowed to cast votes for their own players. This is the 15th straight year that the Big West has selected an All-Specialty Team.
Fox is the first UC Davis recipient of the Best Sixth Player award. After transferring into the Aggie program from City College of San Francisco, Fox became a major contributor to the program’s first Big West championship. Playing in all 29 games, Fox averaged a team third-best 9.4 points. He ranked second in rebounding (4.6 rpg). Fox also hit 60.2 percent (106-of-176) of his field goal attempts. The Daly City, Calif. native scored a season-high 23 points on 11-of-14 shooting in an early season triumph over Utah State, and registered 20 points in just 24 minutes against Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 17. The 6-6 forward recorded 14 points and six rebounds when the Aggies clinched the regular season title against UC Riverside on Mar. 5.
Bobbitt etched his name in the Big West record book in becoming the first player from Hawai‘i to earn an All-Specialty Award of any kind. In garnering the Defensive Player of the Year award, the 6-3 guard led the conference and the nation with 95 steals, while he ranked third in the country with 3.0 steals per game. The steal total places Bobbitt at No. 4 in Big West single-season history, and he is on the cusp of being just the fourth player to amass 100 steals in a season. Hailing from Oakland, Calif., Bobbitt set the UH single-game record with 10 steals against Hawai‘i-Hilo, finishing the night with 12 points and 10 assists as well to secure just the second triple-double in school history. The 10 thefts tied for second on the all-time Big West single-game list. Bobbitt recorded at least three steals in 16 contests, and notched eight in a game twice during conference play against CSUN and Long Beach State.
Harmon continued a trend of repeat recipients of the Best Hustle award. Going back to UC Santa Barbara’s Chris Devine (2008-09), and followed by Joe Harden of UC Davis (2010-11) and UC Irvine’s Adam Folker (2012-13), Harmon caught the eye of the conference coaches for the second straight season. The 6-0 point guard, known as the team’s energizer, ranks second in the Big West with a 2.51 assist-to-turnover ratio and is tied for fourth in assists (3.7 apg). Harmon also had the fourth-most steals on the team with 18. The Washington D.C. native is a prime reason that UCSB is 15-0 this season when limiting opponents to 60 points or less.
2014-15 BIG WEST BEST SIXTH PLAYER
Josh Fox, UC Davis
2014-15 BIG WEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Roderick Bobbitt, Hawai‘i
2014-15 BIG WEST BEST HUSTLE PLAYER
Zalmico Harmon, UC Santa Barbara