We are now well into December of the college basketball season and we need your help to decide our men’s player of week for Dec. 1-7 by voting in the poll below.
Here are our top five men’s candidates and a recap of their outstanding performances from across week five of the college basketball season.
Donte Bacchus – North Alabama
Bacchus has North Alabama off to a 5-4 start after a pair of wins last week, including one over a former top-25 mid-major program. It started with the senior wing managing 19 points on 8-for-14 shooting, and adding nine rebounds to lift the Lions over Jacksonville State on the road, 73-66.
North Alabama traveled to San Francisco on a quick turnaround two days later to face Chris Gerlufsen and his Dons, the 15th ranked program in MMM’s other top-25 coming into the week. San Francisco might have been favored by 16.5 points, but it was the Lions emerging with a 65-63 win behind Bacchus’ 20 points, five rebounds and three steals.
Duncomb, a former top-100 prospect who started his career at Indiana, has made massive strides in year-two at Winthrop. The 6-foot-9 center is currently the Eagles leading scorer, averaging 14.7 PPG, and had a pair of standout performances last week.
He opened on Tuesday with a new career-high in scoring, dropping 28 points, grabbing six rebounds and swatting three blocks for an overtime win at LIU. Though Winthrop followed it up with a loss to Coastal Carolina on Saturday, Duncomb kept the Eagles within range all night. He finished with his third double-double of the season, managing 16 points and 12 rebounds as Winthrop fell, 88-84.
Aidan Mahaney – UC Santa Barbara
Mahaney’s UConn stint last season might not have gone quite according to plan, but he’s flourishing with a move back out west and is averaging a career-high 15.6 PPG for UC Santa Barbara. The former Saint Mary’s recruit has the Gauchos at 8-2 after a pair of wins last week to open up conference-play in the Big West led by two of his best performances this season.
As UC Santa Barbara battled Long Beach State into overtime on Thursday, it was Mahaney leading the way with 26 points on 11-of-11 at the free throw line, six rebounds and three assists. He followed that up with a career-high 30 points while going 11-for-13 from the field to help lift the Gauchos past Cal State Bakersfield, 109-84.
With Hofstra off to a 6-4 start, Davis has been the early catalyst with the dynamic scorer averaging a career-high 21.2 PPG which is top-10 in the nation. Though the Pride battled to a 1-1 record this past week, Davis kept his team in two significant road contests and even led a high-major upset for the second time in two years.
Hofstra opened the week by visiting a red hot Columbia program in the midst of a then six-game win streak and though the Pride fell, 72-70, Davis did all he could to will his team back with 24 points. Speedy Claxton and Co. weren’t fazed, and responded with an 80-73 win on the road over Pittsburgh, in which Davis finished with 36 points and seven assists to lead the charge.
Everyone’s favorite mid-major head coach in Greg Kampe has yet another incredible scoring guard on his hands with the arrival of Robinson from UT Arlington this past offseason. Robinson struggled for a consistent role in two previous stops at the Division-I level but in a new spot with Kampe, looks like he could be a star in the Horizon League.
Robinson has Oakland in the midst of a four-game win streak after dropping 27 points and producing eight assists to help the Golden Grizzlies beat Purdue Fort Wayne, 101-92. Three days later, he followed that performance up with 19 points, nine assists and three steals to help stave off Toledo, 98-97.
