NCAA Basketball: El Ellis and Brandon Miller among Players of the Week

Nominees for Mid-major Player of the week

Jordan Brown

The former five-star is well-traveled. He started his career at Nevada, then transferred to Arizona. He finally has become a star at his last stop, Louisiana. The Ragin Cajuns have one of the better mid-major programs in the country and they are the class of the Sun Belt. Brown is also one of the favorites for the player of the year in the Sun Belt.

Last week Brown had a week that earned him his first nomination for the Player of the Week. In a game to start the week against Louisiana Christian, the big man scored 37 points to go with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. In a game against McNeese, he scored 20 points to go along with 5 rebounds. Brown is a great player and should find himself on this list again.

James Bishop IV

George Washington only played one game last week but the Colonials’ star guard made the game count. Bishop has been one of the best scorers in the country early in the season. The guard has been a consistent scorer but has not had a huge game until this week. In a win over Coppin State, the guard had a fantastic game. He scored 30 points with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Bishop is typically a volume shooter and gets most of the touches in the George Washington offense. He is good enough to score 30 multiple times and even if he doesnt find himself on this list again he will still likely average over 20 points per game on the season.

Ahsan Asadullah

The Lipscomb Bison big man is in his fifth year in the program and this year has not been like the other four. To be honest, Asadullah went from being one of the best big men in the Atlantic Sun to a solid player who averages close to double figures. The big man is still capable of some very big games even if he is having a down year. To start the week off is a win of Tennessee Tech the Lipscomb star scored 21 points to go along with 15 rebounds. He did not end the week on a high note at all as he didn’t score a point in a loss to Michigan. In that game he did record 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

Jake Stephens

The third week in a row for the star from Chattanooga. Stephens has yet to win the award but that feels like it is going to change quickly. Stephens is one of the most dangerous players in the game. He is almost guaranteed 20 points and 10 rebounds every single night and he has shown when he does that the Mocs are going to win most of the games they play. In a win over Middle Tennessee, the big man scored 24 points to go along with 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks. That is a heck of a performance but in true Stephens fashion he followed it up with a 30-point game.

In a loss to Belmont, the big man scored 32 points, 20 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 blocks. That is an even better performance. 30 points and 20 rebound games are rare and those usually win a lot of National Player of the Week awards.

Carlos Stewart

Santa Clara being a good team provides a ton of depth to the West Coast Conference this season and a league that is likely going to get three bids, but the Broncos may make it a fourth. Stewart is not the go-to option for the Broncos, but he is a great second option and is capable of some very big games. He started off the week with a huge game in a win over California Irvine. The guard scored 29 points with 1 rebound and 4 assists. Stewart, like so many other players, took a step back after his huge game. In a win against California, the guard only scored 4 points with 2 rebounds and 2 assists.

Justin Johnson

UT Rio Grande Valley has started off the year very well. They also have two players who are great scorers and none better than Johnson. The guard is making his second appearance on the list and has already had two thirty-point games this year. Johnson started off the week with a bang against Southwest Christian. A non-division 1 opponent and the Vaqueros star guard scored 31 points with 11 rebounds. The guard followed that up in a win over Houston Christian with 29 points and 8 rebounds. In the game against Houston Christian, the guard got to the line 19 times in the same game. Unfortunately for Johnson he only shoots 62% from the line this season.

Quincy Olivari

Offense is never going to be in short order at Rice while head coach Scott Pera is at the helm. Olivari is back to leading the team and back to be a premier scorer in the Conference USA. The Owls are a great shooting team, and their guard is one of the best in the country. In the first game of the week, a win over a nondivision 1 school Olivari scored 22 points with 3 rebounds and 4 assists. The game that earned him a spot on the nomination list was the 30-point game he had in a win over Northwestern State. In that game, the guard finished with 30 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. Olivari needs to score at a high level for Rice to continue its hot start to the season.

Tevian Jones

The Southern Utah Thunderbirds only played one game last week and their star guard Jones made it count. Southern Utah has been a team who has been on the cusp of breaking through and making a trip to the NCAA tournament over the last few seasons but has never been able to get over the hump in the conference tournament. Jones started his career at Illinois and has been at Southern Utah for the last three seasons. The Thunderbird guard has started every single game since he has been on campus and his presence in the lineup has coincided with one of the best three-year runs in Southern Utah history. In a win over Northern Arizona, the guard scored 31 points to go with 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Jalen Cone

Northern Arizona is not a great basketball team, they likely are going to finish near the bottom of the Big Sky, but they would be a lot worse if they did not have Cone on their team. It is not every day that a good Power five player transfers down. That is what happened with the guard as he had carved out a role as a shooter for Virginia Tech but wanted to get more playing time so transferred to Northern Arizona. The Lumberjacks are very happy that the guard decided to transfer and even though they are still losing games, the guard is keeping them in most every game. In an overtime loss to Southern Utah, the guard went crazy. He scored 45 points to go with 5 rebounds and 1 assist. That is the current high-scoring game of the year topping the 42 points put up earlier this year by Dwayne Cohill.

Taevion Kinsey

There are certain players who have a knack for scoring. It comes naturally to these players. Kinsey is one of those players. He has been one of the premier offensive players in Conference USA over the last two seasons. Now he is looking to be one of the best scorers in the Sun Belt. Kinsey is different from so many other guards because he does all of his scoring inside the three-point line. He doesn’t shoot threes very much and he doesn’t get fouled a ton.

In the two games last week one a loss against UNC Greensboro he scored 24 points with 4 rebounds and 6 assists. He was 1 out of 2 from deep. In a win over Toledo, the guard scored 30 points with 7 rebounds and 7 assists. He didn’t make a three in that game and only made 6 free throws. He ended up 12-19 from the floor with 17 of those shots coming from inside the arc. It was an impressive performance all around.

Mekhi Lairy

Miami Ohio should be a middle-of-the-pack team in the MAC and a lot of that optimism does stem from their star guard. The Redhawks have multiple guys on the offensive end who can score no one really needs to take a ton of volume including Lairy. He does most of his scoring with a little over 10 shots per game. The guard is a good shooter from deep and gets fouled a lot. In a loss to Cincinnati, Lairy was the only bright spot for the Redhawks as he scored 20 points with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. In the final game of the week a win over Bellarmine, the guard scored 30 points with 5 assists. It was the second time that Lairy has scored 30 points this year.

Mike Bothwell

I am surprised it took this long for Bothwell to appear on this list. He much like Kinsey is one of the premier scorers in the game but he does it a little differently. Bothwell, like every other player who plays for Furman, can shoot from the outside. Bothwell also doesn’t need a large volume of shots to score. He gets fouled a lot and he shoots well from the outside. He almost made the cut last week but just missed it. This week he was guaranteed a spot on the nominations when he had a 36-point, 3 rebounds, and 3-assist game in a win over Stephen F. Austin. In the final game of the week, a win over a non-division 1 opponent Bothwell only scored 9 points and only took 2 shots. It was the 36-point game that found him a place on this list.

Marko Maletic

Long Island is a bad team as they currently sit at just one win. Maletic is developing a reputation as one of the country’s best three-point shooters and with that is the best player for a struggling Sharks team. Maletic is in his first year of basketball in the NEC and it has been a successful one, at least from an individual standpoint. Unfortunately, Long Island lost both games they played last week but the guard had a huge week. In a loss against Albany, the guard scored 22 points, with 4 rebounds and 2 assists. In the final game of the week, a loss to James Madison, Maletic scored 32 points with 3 rebounds and 1 assist. It was a great week for a virtually unknown player.

Antoine Davis

Davis is in a class all by himself when it comes to scoring. If you ask me he is the best scorer in the college game today. He is a threat to go for 30 every single night. He has done it two games in a row and likely is going to have a lot more. Davis currently leads all of the NCAA in scoring at 25 points per game. It would make sense that he would have a lot of great weeks leading up to those numbers. This is the second consecutive week that Davis has been nominated for the award. Detroit Mercy only played one game this week. It was a loss for the Titans but Davis showed why he is such a dangerous offensive player. In a loss to Eastern Michigan, the guard scored 30 points and didn’t provide else in the counting stats but a 30-point game should still be recognized.

Trey Townsend

Two weeks in a row for the Oakland wing. The Golden Grizzlies have had a lot of elite scorers come through their ranks and Townsend is quickly developing into the next great one for Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies are struggling this year as they do not have much after Townsend but the wing is turning into a star for Coach Kampe. He is another player who can score from everywhere on the floor and he has gotten a bigger share of the touches in the offense over the last two games. Those were the games that saw him score in high numbers as well. In the only game for Oakland this week, a loss to Boise State, the wing scored 30 points to go with 8 rebounds.

That concludes the nominations for this week. There were some big games this week with some huge individual performances. Who was the best this week?