Senior of the week: Stanley Umude; South Dakota. Umude had a big weekend as the Coyotes opened Summit League play with a sweep of Denver.
In Sunday’s 79-57 win, Umude recorded a double-double for South Dakota, scoring a team-high 27 points while grabbing another team-high, 11 rebounds.
Umude was hot from the field, going 10-14 in the win.
In Saturday’s 93-54 blowout victory, Umude also scored in double figures, finishing with 17 points. He also had a team-high eight rebounds.
Past Winners
Week 1 Matt Pile, Omaha
Week 2 Stanley Umude, South Dakota
Week 3 Will Carius, Western Illinois
Week 4 Rocky Kreuser, North Dakota State
Junior of the week: Our Junior of the week this week was a no brainer, coming off freshly being named the Summit League Player of the Week, Kevin Obanor took this by a landslide. He pieced together one heck of a weekend in the Summit League opener, kicking it off with a career-high 39 points and 10 boards Saturday in a victory over Omaha. He then went on to post another double-double of 27 points and 12 rebounds Sunday helping ORU complete the weekend sweep of Omaha. This version of Obanor is definitely the player that put himself on the player of the year watch list, and our junior of the week for the 3rd time.
Past Winners
Week 1 Kevin Obanor, Oral Roberts
Week 2 Alex Arians, South Dakota State
Week 3 Wanyang Tut, Omaha
Week 4 Kevin Obanor, Oral Roberts
Sophomore of the week: Our sophomore of the week is for certain South Dakota’s AJ Plitzuweit. The local Vermillion kid averaged 25 points per game over the two wins vs Denver. AJ hit 15-24 FG’s, 10 rebounds, & 9 assists in the victories. The sharpshooting coach’s kid has become a great second outside scoring option for the Yotes and if league teams have not given him his due, they will have to now. His ceiling will get higher and higher as his court sense and love to play really show.
Past Winners
Week 1 Max Abmas, Oral Roberts
Week 2 Baylor Scheierman, South Dakota State
Week 3 Max Abmas, Oral Roberts
Week 4 Jarius Cook, North Dakota State
Freshman of the week: La’Mel Robinson opened up his 2020-21 Summit League play with two solid performances against Oral Roberts on Saturday and Sunday. The Omaha Redshirt Freshman struggled offensively (1-of-6 shooting) a bit against ORU on Saturday but bounced back Sunday and scored a career-high 16 points in a 86-75 loss to the Golden Eagles. In two games over the weekend, Robinson scored 22 points on 6-of-14 shooting and hauled down 10 rebounds. What made Robinson’s performance so special on Sunday was that he only played 21 minutes and was able to drop 16 points and seven rebounds. He also finished 10-of-13 from the free-throw line in those two games.
Past Winners
Week 1 Tyree Ihenacho, North Dakota
Week 2 Tyree Ihenacho, North Dakota
Week 3 Sam Hines, Denver
Week 4 Grant Nelson, North Dakota State
Bench player of the week: North Dakota has been in a real offensive funk in recent games. However, one potentially positive development is the performance of Mitchell Sueker off the bench. The junior forward averaged 8 points and an impressive 6 rebounds over the weekend. This included a game where Sueker went 10-11 from the free-throw line. Sueker’s energy off the bench has definitely been a lift for the Fighting Hawks.
Past Winners
Week 1 Marlon Ruffin, Omaha
Week 2 Sam Hines, Denver
Week 3 Gertautas Urbonavicius, North Dakota
Week 4 Gertautas Urbonavicius, North Dakota
Defense of the week: This week’s Summit League Defense of the Week goes to the Kansas City Roos. KC held UND to a mere 52 and 53 points in two games this weekend. The Roos earned a split, but the defense was good enough to win both games. Kansas City forced 17 turnovers, held UND to 36% shooting in a rock fight loss on Saturday in Grand Forks. In Sunday’s win over the Fighting Hawks, the Roo’s again were stingy holding UND to 37% from the field and just 4 for 19 from the arc. They handily won the rebounding battle 30-22 on Sunday. The Roos are home to face South Dakota next in the next round of doubleheaders.
Past winners
Week 1 North Dakota State
Week 2 North Dakota
Week 3 Western Illinois
Week 4 Denver