University of Portland freshman point guard Joel Foxwell has been named to the All-West Coast Conference (WCC) First Team, as announced by the league office. The selection was made by WCC head coaches. Foxwell also earned a spot on the WCC All-Freshman Team.
Foxwell is only the second freshman in Portland Pilots history to receive All-WCC First Team honors, joining Greg Anthony who achieved this in 1987. He is also the first Portland player to be named to the First Team since Alec Wintering in the 2015-16 season and just the second honoree from Portland in the last 15 years. This marks four consecutive seasons that head coach Shantay Legans has developed a WCC All-Freshman Team member.
The Melbourne, Australia native set new program records during his freshman year, including most assists in a single season with 202—surpassing Alec Wintering’s previous record of 187 from 2015-16—and most points scored by a freshman with 488, breaking Austin Rapp’s mark of 428 from last season. Foxwell could become only the fifteenth player in school history to score more than 500 points in one season.
On February 18, Foxwell scored 35 points against Pepperdine, setting a new single-game scoring record for freshmen at Portland; Reggie Logan previously held this record with 32 points against Pacific on November 26, 1976. His performance against Santa Clara on December 30 included 15 assists, matching both his career high and tying Tyler Robertson’s program record for assists in a game set on December 10, 2022.
Nationally, Foxwell joins Jeremiah Fears (Michigan State), Josiah Davis (CSUN), and Donovan Dent (UCLA) as players with multiple games recording at least fifteen assists. He is also among seven players nationwide who have recorded at least one game with both twenty points and fifteen assists this season. Over the course of his freshman campaign, he has tallied eleven games with at least twenty points, four double-doubles, and six games with ten or more assists.
Foxwell and Quinn Denker of Northern Colorado are currently the only two players nationwide averaging at least fifteen-point-seven points per game, four rebounds per game, and six-and-a-half assists per game. In addition to leading the WCC in total assists and ranking ninth nationally for that statistic—while sitting fifteenth nationally for assists per game—Foxwell ranks sixth in conference scoring overall and third for average points scored during league play.
The Pilots are preparing for their next appearance at the Credit One West Coast Conference Basketball Championship scheduled for March 5–10 at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. They will face Pepperdine on Thursday evening; victory would see them advance to play Washington State on Friday.
Other major awards announced by the conference include Coach of the Year Herb Sendek (Santa Clara), Player of the Year Graham Ike (Gonzaga), Defensive Player of the Year Will Heimbrodt (Seattle U), Newcomer of the Year David Fuchs (San Francisco), Sixth Man of the Year Allen Graves (Santa Clara), and Freshman of the Year Allen Graves (Santa Clara).
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