NCAA Basketball: Cacok, Quinnipiac-Siena top mid-major performers of the week
By Logan Butts
There was a lot of NCAA Basketball action among the mid-majors this week. Let’s take a look at what the best had to offer.
Best Performance, Individual – Devontae Cacok, UNC-Wilmington
After a season full of monstrous double-doubles, Devontae Cacok, perhaps the most underrated player in the country, finally earns this week’s Best Individual Performance award.
The senior stat king led the Seahawks to what was their biggest win of the season to date by taking out the CAA-leading Hofstra Pride and last week’s winner Justin Wright-Foreman 87-79 on Saturday.
Cacok had another one of his casually great lines in the upset, posting 18 points and 16 rebounds to carry UNC-Wilmington to the win.
It was his nation-leading 20th double-double of the year, three more than the five-way tie for second, which includes fellow mid-major monster Mike Daum who readers of this column should be very familiar with.
It was also his seventh game with at least 15 and 15, which if I had to guess also leads the country. The man just produces.
I could have easily written about Chris Clemons for a third time this week after her dropped 48 points. moving himself into ninth place on the all-time Division I scoring list ahead of Danny Manning and Oscar Robertson.
Other honorable mentions this week: 43-4-6 for Charleston’s Grant Riller in a loss to Hofstra, 29and 16 for Sayeed Pridgett in a Montana win over Weber State, 32-6-7-1-2 for Ja Morant in a win over Austin Peay, 29-7-14-3-2 for Jon Konchar of IPFW over Denver, 42 and 18 (!) for Terry Taylor of Austin Peay over Morehead State, 40-7-6-5-1 for Jermaine Morrow in a Hampton loss, 37-3-4-3 for Youngstown State’s Darius Quisenberry, and SDSU’s David Jenkins for this wild buzzer beater to beat NDSU.