NCAA Basketball: El Ellis and Brandon Miller among Players of the Week
By Bryan Mauro
Mid-major Player of the Week – Jake Stephens
The third time is a charm for the Chattanooga Mocs big man. Stephens has seen his name appear on this list three separate weeks and he finally won the award. I will admit it is hard to ignore the 45 points that Jalen Cone of Northern Arizona scored. It was also tough to not give the award to UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros star Justin Johnson after a 60-point week. I kept going back to the week that Stephens had and especially when it comes to his performance in the game against Belmont.
Think back to the offseason and remember that Stephens was being recruited by everyone but ultimately decided to follow his coach Dan Earl to Chattanooga. There are not many guys who are 7’0” and can bring the ball up the floor, shoot 50% from deep, and 60% overall from the floor. Those guys are almost never guys who are going to rebound and block as well. Most big men these days are going to provide offense and a little bit of defense, or they are going to trade that offense for a lot of defense. There is a rare breed like Stephens who can do everything.
I mentioned earlier how there has yet to be a repeat winner in the mid-major or the power five players, but Stephens is a guy who has a chance to win this award multiple times. He stuffs the stat sheet with all the counting stats. He is currently top 10 in scoring and top 20 in rebounds. He is averaging 20 blocks per game and about 3 assists per game. Those numbers coming from 7 footers are ridiculous. Some have said Stephens plays like your “create a player” in the latest NBA game for Xbox. He does put up video game-like numbers. Congratulations to Jake for winning the Busting Brackets player of the week.