On the men’s side, for example, the two best teams in Montana and Northern Colorado don’t have a clear-cut star — only to their credit; the championship trophies each team celebrated with are the reward.

Dylan Darling’s breakout season at Idaho State (19.9 points, 5.9 assists per game) is one way coaches could go. Blaise Threatt (20.1 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.9 steals per game) would probably be a frontrunner if not for Weber State’s record.

There are similar ways the women’s coach of the year vote could go.

In her 20th season at Montana State, Tricia Binford has put together one of the best campaigns in Big Sky history. The Bobcats are 27-3 entering the conference tournament and rated 55th in the NCAA’s NET rating. But, it’s the sixth 20-win season in the last 10 for MSU, who has enjoyed considerable success for some time.

At Northern Arizona, Loree Payne just notched the ‘Jacks second straight season of at least 25 wins. Certainly notable.

NAU and Montana State were voted 1-2 in both preseason polls this year.

At Idaho, Arthur Moreira is a great candidate. Two years after Idaho surprisingly parted ways with 15-year coach Jon Newlee, Moreira coached the Vandals to a third-place finish in his first season. Idaho had 20-win seasons as recently as 2018-19 and 2019-20 but was voted seventh by media and eighth by coaches ahead of this season.

But at Weber State, the Wildcats have their own candidate.

Jenteal Jackson, in her second season but first with a roster full of her own recruits, had the Wildcats play like nobody expected.

Media voted WSU to finish ninth this season and coaches 10th. For six straight seasons, the Wildcats had finished no better than ninth place and its best conference record in that span was 6-14.

And before conference play even arrived, Weber lost three rotation players: senior starting point guard Rita Satini to a knee injury, sophomore wing Japrix Stubbs to a knee injury, and senior shooting guard Kaitlin Burgess left the team.

Jackson also stuck to redshirt plans for three true freshmen, meaning the Wildcats have played with an eight-player rotation for the entirety of the 18-game league schedule. For some moments, it was a seven-player rotation; freshman wing Dakota Nap missed games with an ankle injury and sophomore Taylor Smith, arguably the team’s best or most important player, just missed three games with a concussion.

Weber State went 2-1 in those games without Smith.

Satini was the plan at point guard. The sixth-year senior sat last year and got just seven games before her career ended with injury. Point-guard duties fell to seniors Kendra Parra and Kennedy Eskelson, primarily Parra.

After some bumps, Parra came into her own. In the final 13 games (with an 8-5 record), Parra averaged 14.5 points and 4.9 assists with two 10-assist games and two more eight-assist games.

The team’s first three road games of conference play were against the three teams who proved better than WSU during the regular season (MSU, NAU, Idaho) and the Wildcats lost all three. After that, Weber went 4-2 on the road in a stretch capped at Northern Colorado for a third game in five days to conclude the regular season, an overtime win.

The Wildcats finished 10-8 in conference play for a fourth-place finish (tied for third, losing the head-to-head tiebreaker with Idaho to make WSU the tournament No. 4 seed). It’s only the second time in 18 seasons WSU has finished as high as fourth in the Big Sky regular season. With a 13-15 overall record, it’s only the fourth time in those same 18 seasons WSU has won 13 or more games.

WSU’s 65.3 points per game is its most in the last seven seasons.

There are four good candidates, so who knows how the numbers might split. It may take just three or four votes to win the honor. Given Weber State’s lack of history since Carla Taylor’s 2001-05 run, and the way injuries stressed the Wildcats this season, it would seem Jackson is as good a candidate as anyone.