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OGDEN — There are a lot of numbers in Weber State star Jeremy Senglin’s senior year: 21.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists per game, for starters.
He knows none of them.
“I tell the people in the locker room, you do you, but don’t tell me,” Senglin said. “I think that it’s bad luck.”
But there is one number Senglin was quick to celebrate last week: 15. That’s how many wins the Wildcats (15-8, 10-2 Big Sky Conference) have in his senior year to lead the Big Sky Conference.
Senglin is a big part of it. The league’s all-time leader in career 3-pointers, Senglin ranks fourth in the country in 3-point shooting, and he has the Wildcats on track for another Big Sky championship as Weber State hosts the league’s No. 2 team North Dakota (9-2 Big Sky) on Saturday.
Clinching an NCAA Tournament bid for the third-straight year is all that matters for Senglin.
“That’s first and foremost. We did it last year, but we didn’t finish out what we really want to do that,” said Senglin, who also has 3.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. “We want to win a tournament game, and that’s what is in our heads right now.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve been there twice and we go and lose. We’ve played good, but I haven’t got the monkey off my back. I need to do that. It’s been a long time.”
Senglin became the Big Sky’s all-time leader in career 3-pointers, passing former Northern Arizona guard Ross Land with 312 career triples Saturday in a 96-93 overtime win at Portland State.
Senglin had “an idea” he was close to the record after reading about it on social media. But he tried to “keep it out” of mind — and his head coach was successful at it.
“After the game at Portland State, I was walking out to do radio and my guys grabbed me,” Weber State coach Randy Rahe said. “They told me he broke the Big Sky record for threes, and I didn’t know. We had to go back in and congratulate Jeremy, and everyone gave him high-fives and cheers.”
The Wildcats have been rewriting school and conference records in recent years with stars like Portland Trail Blazers standout Damian Lillard, Utah Jazz rookie Joel Bolomboy and Davion Berry, who currently plays in Germany.
It’s a culture and a legacy Senglin is eager to build on. Prior to Thursday night’s tipoff against Northern Colorado (8-16, 4-9 Big Sky), Senglin is just 94 points shy of Lillard for No. 2 on the school’s all-time scoring list. If he continues to average more than 20 points per game, he'll likely catch Bruce Collins as the Wildcats’ all-time leading scorer sometime during the Big Sky tournament.
“It’s amazing to be talked with that group of people,” said Senglin, who has 1,841 career points. “I feel like all of them are great players, no matter where they ended up, and they all taught me something. Dame, Dev, Scott, Joel; everybody before me taught me something.
“Even the people that they don’t mention, everybody has taught me something.”
Senglin has a special ingredient for following in the footsteps of Lillard, who scored 1,934 points in just three full seasons to become the Big Sky’s top scorer since 1992.
“Every good thing that has happened to him, he has totally earned. He has worked as hard as anybody I’ve ever had,” said Rahe, who said the same thing about Lillard five years ago. “There’s no magic dust; if you want to be good, you work. Jeremy epitomizes a guy who when he came here, he wanted to work. He works his tail off every day, and when good things happen, he’s earned it.”
After a 77-66 loss at BYU, the Wildcats went to work with Senglin’s trademark abandon. The squad won seven-straight games and 12 of the next 13 to open Big Sky play 9-1 prior to a loss at Sacramento State on Feb. 9.
The native of Arlington, Texas, began heating up, too. Senglin is shooting 49.7 percent from the field, 46 percent from 3-point range, and hopes to continue that pace as the Wildcats pursue their third NCAA Tournament berth during his tenure in Ogden — and first win since the days of Harold "The Show" Arceneaux.
“All he cares about is winning,” Rahe said. “Either way (win or lose), he’s going to go back to work the next day in the gym. Jeremy works out because he wants to win. We’ve been blessed because we’ve had him and his attitude, which rubs off.”
Rahe remembers when Senglin arrived on campus in 2013, and even he admits it’s hard to believe what the former Big Sky freshman of the year has done in four seasons as a starter.
“When we first got him, he was a spot-up shooter; we couldn’t hardly get him to bounce the ball,” Rahe said. “As his game grew, we got him to attack the basket, pull-up jumpers, shoot off of screens. You watch him now, and he’s doing a terrific job.”
Of course, records are important for Senglin; as each one falls, he is quick to admit it as “a great accomplishment.”
But catching Lillard and Collins isn’t Senglin’s ultimate goal.
“I saw the amount of points he scored; it’s a lot of points,” he said. “A big goal of mine is to see if I can do that. But I’d rather win than do all of that.”
