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Provo • Officially, BYU's Kyle Collinsworth won the West Coast Conference Player of the Year award on Tuesday, receiving the most votes from the league's 10 basketball coaches.

The 6-foot-6 senior point guard says he earned it six months ago, when others were lounging around the pool, or at some lake in the mountains.

"It is obviously a great award. Going in, you are not quite sure what to expect. I felt like I deserved it, off the numbers. And we were competitive in conference and had games we were in and had a chance to win in conference," Collinsworth said Wednesday after BYU's practice at the Marriott Center.

"This award was won in the offseason, in the summer time, all the hard work and rehab getting back with my knee and stuff. It is good to see some reward come from all the hard work."

The Cougars were treated fairly this year, coach Dave Rose said. Senior guard Chase Fischer the all-conference first team and freshman guard Nick Emery made the second team and all-freshman team.

"Kyle has not only had a great year, but he's had a great career here," Rose said. "To this point, he's won 102 games in his four years. He's been to the Sweet 16 and I think that his league season this year was pretty consistent. He was a big part of the success that we have had.

I think everybody who votes for player of the year all around the country probably has different criteria, but Kyle kinda covered all the bases."

Collinsworth averaged 15.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 2.0 steals, leading the league in assists and steals and placing third in rebounds. Three of his five triple-doubles this season came in WCC games. Congratulatory texts started flowing in Tuesday morning, he said.

"Everybody came out and reached out to me," he said. "People I don't know, people I do know. So, it is all good. That's one thing that is great about BYU, is the love you get from all around the world from Cougar Nation. It is awesome."

Staying sharp

The Cougars will go an entire week between games for the first time this season. Having lost 71-68 to Gonzaga last Saturday, they open the WCC tournament this Saturday against Santa Clara, a team they beat by 36 and 34 points in the regular season.

"This has been a really good team as far as their preparation for the next game after we've been beat," Rose said. "And this week has been very similar. I think that the intensity level on both ends, offensively and defensively, has been good. I think that the fact that we don't play until Saturday has been a little bit interesting as far as being able to keep the practice at a high energy level, consistent all the way to the end. That's probably been the toughest part."

Healthy Cougars

Last year, the Cougars were a banged up team entering the WCC Tournament, with Anson Winder's ailing knee and some other nagging injuries. Not so this year. Rose said that with the exception of a late-practice collision involving players he didn't name, the Cougars are "in better health" than in past years.

Don't forget

Collinsworth said the fact that BYU has defeated every other team in the league at least once this season gives the Cougars confidence heading to Las Vegas. No other team can say that, because Saint Mary's swept Gonzaga and was swept by Pepperdine. —

No. 3 BYU vs. No. 6 Santa Clara

P WCC Tournament

Quarterfinals Saturday, 2 p.m.

At Orleans Arena, Vegas