Mid-major Player of the Week – Jake Stephens
It has finally happened after 8 weeks of doing this article. There has finally been a repeat winner and it is the versatile big man from Chattanooga. Do not take anything away from the Idaho Vandals star Isaac Jones. Jones had a great week and scored 40 points in a game, which is tremendously hard to do. Stephens was just a little bit better in my opinion.
The assist numbers were the deciding factor for me. Stephens started his career at VMI and entered the transfer portal in the offseason when his coach announced he would be heading for another job. Stephens was contacted by virtually everyone and when you realize that he shoots threes at 50%, shoots 50% from the floor, is an elite rebounder and shot blocker, and can pass like a guard it is no wonder that he was wanted by everyone in the portal. Stephens decided to just follow his coach Dan Earl to Chattanooga where he can still destroy the Southern Conference.
Stephens has been on the nomination list most of the weeks for his overall play. Unfortunately for the Mocs there have been far too many times that the big man is like a one-man wrecking crew and does not have much help. A player as dominant as Stephens has been over his entire career he deserves more help from his teammates. Hopefully, the Mocs can get hot and make a run to the NCAA tournament or at the very least make the Southern Conference title game so we can all watch him on National TV.
The big man has already won the award twice and he is likely going to win it again this year. He is too good and against teams who are not going to double-team him or provide any resistance he is going to dominate. Stephens already has three 30-point games, a 20-rebound game, a 5-block game, and 10 double-doubles out of the possible 17 games played. He has spent his entire five-year career in the Southern Conference. The teams are familiar with him, and he is familiar with them. He is going to continue to dominate. It is going to be fun to watch.