Welcome to our Week 1 Recap by Categories. Tons of nominations this week, especially for the Rodman and Sophomore categories! As a matter of fact, Sophomores are recognized throughout the categories this week as they all spent Week 1 terrorizing the NAIA! It’s truly a great a deep class that is going to be fun to continue to watch grow! We have a TON more teams who get their seasons tipped off this week! As the season progresses if you have nominations for any of the categories, simply DM or email us and we will add them to the list!
Best Win | RB Oregon Tech vs No. 14 Southern Oregon
It won’t go down as a Cascade Collegiate Conference game, as the two teams played a non-conference game to open up the season, but a big win for Oregon Tech nonetheless. The Hustlin’ Owls came into this season with a lot of youth and a lot of questions. Questions that were answered with a Top 15 win in Game 1!
Top Upset | IU Southeast defeats No. 3 Georgetown, 69-67
There were several upsets already in the first three days of the season. However, IU Southeast going into a newly renovated Davis-Reid Alumni Gym and leaving with the road upset over No. 3 Georgetown wasn’t just the upset over the highest ranked opponent, but it was also a win inside one of the hardest places to play in the NAIA! The Grenadier’s were led by Nathaniel Hoffman’s 18pts and 9rebs. They also got 12pts by Keith Robinson and 10pts from Jaden Johnson, both off the bench.
Best Game | Faulkner (AL) defeats Talladega (AL), 86-83 OT.
An overtime game that featured 8 ties and 9 lead changes is your best game! This game also was never separated by more than 3 possessions! KJ Rogers (Faulkner) continued his big weekend with 35 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals in the win!
Best Offense | Carroll (MT)
Carroll knocked off St. Thomas (FL) 96-82 in their season debut. While they didn’t have the most points this weekend the Fighting Saints were the most efficient offense in the NAIA shooting 37-57 (64.9%) from FG, 7-16 (43.8%) from 3. They did struggle at the FT line going 15-25 (60%). Isaiah Crane (24-25 Frontier Freshman of the Year) started his sophomore campaign off with a bang as he dropped 26pts while being 10-11 (90.9%) from the field!
MVP | Jesse Van Kalsbeek, Northwestern (IA)
The reigning GPAC Freshman of the Year and All-American burst into his sophomore campaign with a 40pt, 11reb outing, on the road, vs #24 Friends (KS). Jesse is a legit NPOY candidate this season and put up a big resume outing in Game 1!
Defensive MVP | Iversyn Smith, Jarvis Christian (TX)
Iversyn, with 22 total rebounds, could have also been a Rodman Award winner, but with 15 of those 22 rebounds coming on the defensive end of the floor. In addition, he added 5 blocks and 3 steals in the same game to earn our Defensive MVP of Week 1!
Coach | Justin Parnell, Oregon Tech
Oregon Tech came into the season losing nearly 80% of their scoring from a season ago. Coach Parnell reloaded with a great Freshman class to join forces with returners Jackson Cooper, Jared Sucher and Dakota Reber. It’s a “next man up” mentality as guys stepped into bigger roles this season! In Game one, the Owls looked the part as they knocked of a Southern Oregon squad that made a run to the NAIA QF’s last year! Coach Parnell reloaded had the Oregon Tech ready to go and earns the Coach of the Week for Week 1!
Defense | Langston (OK)
We said it in our season preview. If Coach Wright gets them to guard like a typical Coach Wright squad, they will be extremely dangerous! In game one, Langston was your Number 1 Defensive Efficiency team in the country (while playing another NAIA). The Lions held Florida College to 31.4% from the field and just 27.8% from 3! They gave up the lowest amount of points (45) in any game in the first three days.
Pippen | Jalen Langsy, Northwestern (IA)
Jalen could have been a part of several categories. However, this one helps to sum up his entire night and covers all the other categories. Jalen was En Fuego from deep going 8-10 from 3 on his way to 31 points. The Sophomore was sensational and most nights, it’s probably enough to make you the best player on the floor. However, Jalen’s “MJ”, was fellow Sophomore Jesse Van Kalsbeek. The two players combined for 71 points on their way to a Top 25 road win! This category fits Jalen really well as he is one of the best “Pippens” in the NAIA and the duo of him and Jesse is one of the best in the country!
Onions | Camden Pfeister, IU Southeast
Sniper | Xavier Alexander, Philander Smith (AR)
We had a ton of really great shooting efforts in the opening week! Xavier played in two games and shot 9-17 (52.9%) from 3. He currently leads the NAIA in makes (9) and 3FG% (52.9) by anyone with more than 10 attempts! On Saturday, Xavier scored 33 points on 7-11 from deep against NCAA D2 LeMoyne-Owen!
Stock Riser | Eastern Oregon
Despite going 1-1 this weekend, EOU had a really good showing as they knocked off Dickinson State , 87-70 and then had chances to knock off No. 14 Montana Tech, before falling 86-83. In the Montana Tech game, Eamon Monahan and Kellen Torkornoo combined for 44 points, but several EOU shots to tie the game late, were offline and EOU couldn’t complete a 2-0 weekend! Fun and competitive squad!
Rodman | Te’Jon McDaniel-McCormick, Milligan (TN)
Te’Jon was the epitome of the Rodman Award this week as he averaged 18 rebounds a game in 2 games this week. In the game vs Life (GA) he had 0pts, 17rebs and was 0-0 from the field! Then vs Georgia Gwinnett, Te’Jon had 10 points to go with 19 rebounds. His season averages, after two games, is 5pts, 18rebs.
Sophomore |Peter Dress, Embry-Riddle (AZ)
The reigning GSAC Freshman of the Year, followed up his great FR season with a 30pt, 10reb outing in game one of his Soph campaign! If you haven’t seen the 6’6 Forward hoop yet, you should! He’s got a great skill set and can really shoot it! Against Justice, he went 11-18 from the field while connecting on 4 of 7 from 3!
Freshman | Tristan Kuska, Carolina University
A lot of really good Freshman showings in Week 1, but giving the nod to Carolina University Freshman, Tristan Kuska. The 6’9 Forward out of Germany, burst onto the scene with a 23pt, 9reb debut! The outing led Carolina U, to an impressive win over a tough Columbia International team who was picked 3rd in the AAC Preseason!
Dunk of the Week | DeVontre Chaney, Georgia Gwinnett
There were several dunk nominees this week, but Tre Chaney’s thunderous dunk against Spartanburg Methodist gets the nod this week!
