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NCAA Basketball: Ja Morant, UL Monroe top mid-major performers

By Logan Butts

AUBURN, ALABAMA - DECEMBER 22: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers goes up for a dunk against the Auburn Tigers at Auburn Arena on December 22, 2018 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
AUBURN, ALABAMA - DECEMBER 22: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers goes up for a dunk against the Auburn Tigers at Auburn Arena on December 22, 2018 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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SAN DIEGO, CA – MARCH 16: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers handles the ball in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena on March 16, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA – MARCH 16: Ja Morant #12 of the Murray State Racers handles the ball in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Viejas Arena on March 16, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Donald Miralle/Getty Images) /

Another action-packed week of NCAA Basketball is in the books. Who were this week’s top mid-major performers?

Best Performance, Individual – Ja Morant, Murray State

We have out first multi-time winner of this honor of the season. This week’s pick actually came down to two former winners: Murray State’s Ja Morant and South Dakota State’s Mike Daum.

As I said in the very first article of this series back in November, I try to spread the love around with the awards by featuring different teams and players each week. But Morant and Daum were far and away the top performers this week, so I had no choice.

Morant wins by a hair for turning in two killer performances to Daum’s one.

Morant’s weekly crazy statlines are becoming ho-hum, as evidence by his second-best game of the week, a 27-3-9-1-1 outing in a 83-61 Racers win over Eastern Illinois barely conjuring up a second look from most people.

But on Saturday, the future lottery pick turned in one of his finest hours of the season, going for 40-3-11-5 as Murray State beat SIU-E 82-72 on the road.

The kid is unstoppable. So was Daum as the big man went for 34-21-3-2 in a 78-74 SDSU win at North Dakota on Wednesday. I really hope we get to see these two on the big stage in March.

Honorable mention goes to Jordan Varnado, who dropped 32-9-3-3 and hit a game-winning three from way out to lead Troy to 77-75 win vs Georgia State, which was the Panthers first conference loss of the season.

Others include: 26-7-4-2-1 from Sandy Cohen III in a Green Bay overtime win vs UIC and a pair of top nights from Long Beach State’s Deishuan Booker: 28-4-6-3 in an upset of UC Irvine and 33-3-5-5 in an overtime loss to CSF.

Also, shoutout to UNA freshman Christian Agnew for nailing a half-court buzzer beater to beat Stetson.

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