Neemias Queta named an AP All-American and District VIII Player of the Year

12 MAR 2021: Neemias Queta #23 of the Utah State Aggies celebrates a basket against the Colorado State Rams during the 2021 Mountain West Men's and Women's Basketball Championship held at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV. Morgan Engel/Clarkson Creative Photography

LOGAN, Utah – Utah State junior center Neemias Queta has been named an honorable mention All-American as announced by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Additionally, Queta was named the District VIII Player of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) and first-team all-District 17 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Queta is the seventh AP All-American in Utah State history and second in the last three years, joining Sam Merrill (2019), Tai Wesley (2011), Gary Wilkinson (2009), Jaycee Carroll (2007, 2008), Marvin Roberts (1969, 1971) and Wayne Estes (1965).

Queta is the second-straight Aggie to earn USBWA District VIII Player of the Year as Merrill earned the award in 2020.

Queta has been named NABC all-District 17 every year with the Aggies, earning second-team honors each of the past two seasons before earning first-team honors this year.

Queta leads the Aggies in scoring, averaging 15.1 points per game, and on the glass, pulling down 10.0 rebounds per game during the 2020-21 campaign. He finished the year with double-doubles in eight of the final nine games. Queta led the Mountain West and ranks third in the nation with 3.21 blocks per game, setting the all-time record in career blocked shots with 212 during his career. Queta also set a single-game school record with nine blocks against Colorado State during the semifinals of the MW Championships. Queta’s 90 blocks on the year surpassed his own single-season school record of 84, set during his freshman year in 2018-19.

Nationally, Queta leads the nation in defensive win shares (2.8) and defensive box plus/minus (6.6), and is in the top-20 in total blocks (90, 2nd), double-doubles(15, 4th), total rebounds (281, 6th), total rebounds per game (10.0, 18th) and defensive rebounds per game (7.14, 19th). Queta leads the Mountain West in field goal percentage (.557), 2-point field goals (162), defensive rebounds (200), total rebounds (281), blocks (90), rebounds per game (10.0), blocks per game (3.2), player efficiency (30.8), effective field goal percentage (.557), defensive rebound percentage (26.8), total rebound percentage (19.0), block percentage (13.0), defensive rating (80.6), win shares (5.6) and box plus/minus (11.9).

In addition to his scoring, rebounding and blocks, Queta is second on the team with 1.1 steals per game and fourth on the team with 2.5 assists per game. Queta is the only player in the country this season with more than 65 blocks and more than 65 assists, totaling 90 and 71 on the year, respectively.

Queta has led the Aggies to three-straight NCAA Tournament berths, just the second time in school history that Utah State has earned back-to-back-to-back spots in the Big Dance. Utah State enters the 2021 NCAA Tournament as an 11th-seed and will face sixth-seeded Texas Tech on Friday, March 19, at 11:45 a.m. (MT).

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.