DENVER – A new era of basketball has begun in Las Cruces, but New Mexico State men's basketball will keep chugging along full steam ahead according to league coaches and its media as the Aggies were picked to win the Western Athletic Conference in both polls.
 
In the coaches' poll, NM State tallied four first-place votes to Grand Canyon's three to take the top spot by a narrow margin of 45-44. The slim margin was also echoed in the media poll with the Aggies picking up nine first-place votes to GCU's eight gives them a 167-165 edge. CSU Bakersfield took third in both polls while Utah Valley and Seattle U flip flopped spots in each of the polls for fourth and fifth. UMKC, UT Rio Grande Valley and Chicago State rounded out the rest of the polls in the same order.
 
Senior Ian Baker also garnered preseason first-team honors in both the coaches' and media polls. The Aggie floor general averaged 13.8 points and 3.7 assists last season to go with his 4.6 boards per game. He also led the Aggies in scoring four different times and scored 20-plus points five times.
 
The Washington, D.C., native started in all 34 games last season and shot a .425 clip on the year. Baker made headlines on Jan. 23 when he hit the game-winning 3-pointer at CSU Bakersfield in the second overtime period.
 
Grand Canyon's Joshua Braun was the 2016-17 preseason player of the year pick in both polls while Baker, Dedrick Basile (CSUB), Martez Harrison (UMKC) and Brandon Westendorf join him on All-WAC Preseason First-Team.
 
For a full look at the preseason coaches' poll, click here.
For a full look at the preseason media poll, click here.