Known Commodities

(St. Louis, MO) – Known commodities ruled the Valleys last week. Star players from pre-season favorites flexed their collective muscles to earn their respective player of the week awards.

Missouri Valley Conference

He’s still not 100%, but Fred VanVleet at 75% is awfully good. He is this week’s ‘Player of the Week’. The pre-season player of the year played his second and third games back with Wichita State after nursing both an ankle and hamstring injury. The 6’1 guard averaged 13.5 points, five assists and four rebounds in the Shockers’ wins over UNLV and 25th ranked Utah. VanVleet’s skills as a floor general help at both ends of the floor. With him back in the line-up the Shockers averaged just six turnovers per game and held both opponents to 50 points.

Missouri State’s Dequon Miller is the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ for the second straight time. The Charleston, Virginia native averaged 13 points, 3.5 rebounds and four assists for the Bears who split a pair of games.

Ohio Valley Conference

There were Co-Players of the Week in the OVC. Belmont’s Evan Bradds earned one half of that award. Bradds scored 27 points against Lipscomb, making nine of ten field goal attempts. The 6’7 junior leads all Division 1 players in field goal percentage at 74.8%! This is his second ‘Player of the Week’ award this season.

C. J. Carr made it a break through week for the Southern Illinois Edwardsville Cougars. Carr and the Cougars ended a seven game losing streak by hitting a game winning basket against rival Southern Illinois Carbondale. The Cougars then knocked off Portland State for their first winning streak of the season. Carr averaged 15 points per game.

Helping that Cougar winning streak was junior Burak Eslik who averaged 16 points and 2.5 rebounds in the SIUE victories. Eslik joined Carr as the first two winners of any weekly awards in the Head Coach Jon Harris era, when he was named ‘Newcomer of the Week.’

Eastern Kentucky’s Nick Mayo is making it a habit of being named the best freshman in the OVC. The 6’9 Maine native averaged 14.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in EKU’s two games and received the ‘Freshman of the Week’ award for the third time this season.

Great Lakes Valley Conference

Talk about making something routine. Max Strus seems to go around collecting double-doubles. The sophomore from Lewis University scored 33 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the Flyers’ only game last week. It was Strus’ sixth double feature of the season and garnered him his second GLVC ‘Player of the Week’ award.

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