Senior: This week’s Senior of the Week was a tough one to call as there were some excellent single-game performances across the league. I’m going to give the award to the only one of the group to put up over 20 points both nights while having his team also be the only one to get a sweep this weekend in Western Illinois’ Will Carius. Carius scored 21 & 22 points Friday & Saturday respectively and went an impressive 16/17 from the charity stripe. Add in 3.5 rebounds and 1 steal per game and it was an effort worthy of being the Senior of the Week. After starting out 0-7 in Summit play, WIU has the league’s longest winning streak at 3 games thanks in a big part to Carius’s efforts and will look to add to that win streak with Denver coming to town this weekend.
Week 1 Matt Pile, Omaha
Week 2 Stanley Umude, South Dakota
Week 3 Will Carius, Western Illinois
Week 4 Rocky Kreuser, North Dakota State
Week 5 Stanley Umude, South Dakota
Week 6 Rocky Kreuser, North Dakota State
Week 7 Rocky Kreuser, North Dakota State
Week 8 Brandon McKissic, Kansas City
Week 9 Stanley Umude, South Dakota
Junior: Sometimes it is fun to find a player that hasn’t won the award again and sometimes a player has a week as Kevin Obanor did, and the decision is easy. Obanor averaged 24.5 points and 14 rebounds over the weekend. Obanor was key to ORU getting a split against North Dakota State this weekend. Obanor had a double-double in both games and Obanor’s 9 double-doubles on the season are 7th nationally.
Week 1 Kevin Obanor, Oral Roberts
Week 2 Alex Arians, South Dakota State
Week 3 Wanyang Tut, Omaha
Week 4 Kevin Obanor, Oral Roberts
Week 5 Kevin Obanor, Oral Roberts
Week 6 Kevin Obanor, Oral Roberts
Week 7 Jase Townsend, Denver
Week 8 Tyree Eady, North Dakota State
Week 9 Filip Rebraca, North Dakota
Sophomore: There were four players in the mix for this award this week but South Dakota State sophomore Baylor Scheierman had two strong games against South Dakota that put him ahead of his counterparts. The Aurora, Nebraska native finished with 44 points and 24 rebounds in two games against the Coyotes on Friday and Saturday. Scheierman finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds in SDSU’s 64-56 loss to USD on Friday and also added four assists in 39 minutes. On Saturday, the 6-foot-6 guard went 6-of-12 from the floor and finished with 19 points, which was his highest point total in his last 12 games. Scheierman’s season-high 23 points came against Utah State on Nov. 26. Scheierman also added a season-high nine assists and eight rebounds in Sunday’s 89-78 victory over the Coyotes. On the season, Scheierman is averaging 14.2 points per game, 9.6 rebounds, and 3.3 assists.
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
Week 5 A.J. Plitzuweit, South Dakota
Week 6 A.J. Plitzuweit, South Dakota
Week 7 Max Abmas, Oral Roberts
Week 8 Tasos Kamateros, South Dakota
Week 9 AJ Plitzuweit, South Dakota
Freshmen: Tyree Ihenacho has received this award several times this season and it’s not surprising that he finds himself as the freshmen of the week again. Ihenacho has continued to grow and cemented himself as part of the 1-2 punch with Filip Rebraca for the Fighting Hawks. Ihenacho averaged 16.5 points over the series. Ihenacho also chipped in 9 assists and 4 steals over the 2 game span.
Past Winners
Week 1 Tyree Ihenacho, North Dakota
Week 2 Tyree Ihenacho, North Dakota
Week 3 Sam Hines Jr, Denver
Week 4 Grant Nelson, North Dakota State
Week 5 La’Mel Robinson, Omaha
Week 6 Grant Nelson, North Dakota State
Week 7 Sam Hines Jr, Denver
Week 8 Tyree Ihenacho, North Dakota
Week 9 Jacob Johnson, Kansas City
Reserve: Maybe we’re cheating a little bit here as Robert Jones started game 2, but he was a reserve in game 1 and deserves recognition after returning from a knee injury that caused him to miss several games this season. In his first weekend back, Jones averaged 12 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. Jones’s return was key to Denver grabbing their first Summit League win of the season.
Past Winners
Week 1 Marlon Ruffin, Omaha
Week 2 Sam Hines, Denver
Week 3 Gertautas Urbonavicius, North Dakota
Week 4 Gertautas Urbonavicius, North Dakota
Week 5 Mitchell Sueker, North Dakota
Week 6 Adam Anhold, Western Illinois
Week 7 Eric Moenkhaus, Denver and Mitchell Sueker, North Dakota
Week 8 Caleb Nero, North Dakota
Week 9 Caleb Nero, North Dakota
Defense: North Dakota State. The Bison were able to earn a weekend split against Oral Roberts. The defense led the way as NDSU held the high-scoring Golden Eagles to 54 points in Friday’s 61-54 win. While not as sharp on Saturday, the unit gave NDS a chance, holding ORU to 80. Oral Roberts came into the weekend averaging 80 points per night.
The 54 points are the fewest ORU has scored in a game this season.
Past Winners
Week 1 North Dakota State
Week 2 North Dakota
Week 3 Western Illinois
Week 4 Denver
Week 5 Kansas City
Week 6 Kansas City
Week 7 Kansas City
Week 8 Kansas City
Week 9 Kansas City