Trends Are Being Set

(St. Louis, MO) – There are some undeniable trends being set in the weekly award notifications in the Ohio Valley and Missouri Valley Conferences. There are players that are taking an early and dominant hold on the yearly version of these weekly awards.

Missouri Valley Conference

For the third week in a row, Milik Yarbrough has pulled down the Valley’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’ award and for the second straight week and the third time in four weeks, the Illinois State junior has also grabbed the ‘Player of the Week’ honor.

The 6’6 Saint Louis U transfer scored 29 points and grabbed ten rebounds in Illinois State’s overtime 84-81 win against Indiana State. With Keyshawn Evans out with an injury, Yarbrough also provided four assists, three steals and three blocked shots.

Ohio Valley Conference

Preseason ‘Player of the Year’ Jonathan Stark is now racking up OVC ‘Player of the Week’ awards. The Murray State senior earned his second straight honor by averaging 24 points per game while making over 57% of his shots during the Racers’ two-win week. Stark is 50 points shy of 1,000 for his MSU career.

Stark shares the ‘Player of the Week’ award with Austin Peay senior Averyl Ugba, who is also the league’s ‘Newcomer of the Week’. The Grambling State transfer earned his second straight newcomer notification (third overall) by sparking the Governors to two victories while averaging 19 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Ugba recorded a career high 21 points against SIUE.

Murray State’s impressive freshman Ja Morant made it two straight weeks of being named the OVC’s ‘Freshman of the Week’ recording the 17^th triple-double in OVC history and the second in MSU’s, when he scored 11 points, snatched 10 rebounds and spread around 14 assists in the Racers’ victory over Eastern Illinois.

The 6’3 South Carolina native is the OVC’s leader in assists (7.3 per game) and is eighth nationally.