Big 12 announces Players of the Week for fifth week of the season

With the college basketball season underway, the Big 12 year has started strong. After another solid week, the conference has now named two new award winners for Player and Newcomer of the Week.

Earlier today, the Big 12 named West Virginia’s Tre Mitchell as its Player of the Week. They also named Oklahoma’s Grant Sherfield, a transfer guard, as their Newcomer of the Week.

Mitchell, who transferred to the Mountaineer program this offseason after previous stops at UMass and Texas, led his team to a pair of wins this week. He averaged 16.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, and four assists in their undefeated week over Navy and UAB. Mitchell did it on efficient numbers as well with 58.4% shooting from the field and 50% from deep. That brings his averages up to 12.9 points and 4.6 rebounds on the season.

As for Sherfield, he’s been carrying the Sooners as of late. He led them to a win over Kansas City and did his best to keep them in it against a Top-10 Arkansas team. Overall, he averaged 23.5 points per game on 58.6% shooting from the field and 66.7% from three. After three seasons at Wichita State and Nevada, he’s now averaging 17.7 on career-best percentages over his first ten games at a Power Five program.

SEC announces new Players of the Week for Week 5

Five weeks down and a whole lot more to go in the college basketball season. Conference play is still around the bend, but the SEC is keeping tabs on who the best players in the league are throughout non-conference play. This past week, the SEC excelled on the basketball court, with several teams and players making their mark on the national scene.

Player of the Week: KJ Williams, F, LSU

Freshmen of the Week: Noah Clowney, F, Alabama | Nick Smith Jr., G, Arkansas

The veteran big fella out of the Mardi Gras state was a force to be reckoned with during LSU’s win over Wake Forest last week. The Tigers erased a 20-point deficit at home and wound up beating the Demon Deacons, 72-70. And Matt McMahon’s club rode their senior star during the comeback, with Williams posting 35 points and 10 rebounds. A monstrous double-double to push the Tigers through to 8-1 on the year.

Alabama’s Noah Clowney was one of two rookies to take home Freshman of the Week awards for the prior seven days’ worth of performances. The outing Clowney can hang his hat on came in Houston, where a visiting Crimson Tide squad delivered a crashing blow to the No. 1 ranked Cougars, erasing a 16-point deficit to topple the AP’s top-ranked team and leave an arena full of fans gobsmacked with shock. Clowney was a grown man down low to help turn the tide, going for 16 and 11.

The other youngster worthy of recognition for last week is Arkansas’ Nick Smith. He was injured to start the season and missed the team’s eventful Maui run. But he’s back and letting the nation know, having averaged north of 21 points per outing in two games last week.