NCAA Men: Landale, Reath and Cooks named players of the week
Thanks to some big opening game performances by Aussie big men Jock Landale, Duop Reath and Xavier Cooks, all were named Player of the Week for their respective school conferences.
6'11 center Jock Landale enjoyed a night out against Nevada in Saint Mary's 81-63 opening win. The sophomore exploded for a career-best 33 points on an amazing 15/20 shooting with 9 rebounds in 33 minutes of play. His scoring output bettered his previous best mark of 24 that was set against Pacific last season and resulted in him being named West Coast Conference Player of the Week.
https://twitter.com/WCChoops/status/798267814419132422
In breaching the 30-point mark, Landale also became the Gael to do so since 22 February 2014 when Stephen Holt delivered 35 against Santa Clara. He will be looking to continue his great start when the Gaels next take on Prairie View A&M at home.
Also enjoying a night out was junior college transfer Duop Reath. In his LSU debut, the Reath posted an impressive 23 points (9/13 FG) and 14 rebound double-double with 3 blocked shots and 3 steals, guiding the Tigers to a 91-69 victory over Wofford. In doing so, the 6'10 Reath became just the sixth player in the Johnny Jones era at LSU to have at least one game of 20 points and 10 rebounds. The last player to do so was fellow countryman Ben Simmons.
For his outstanding effort, Reath was duly named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week.
https://twitter.com/SEC/status/798227917889146885
Xavier Cooks had a big weekend too. The 6'8 versatile forward compiled a 21 point and 10 rebound double-double with two blocked shots in Winthrop's opening 66-57 win against Ferrum College. He was influential in the opening half with 12 points to set up the big win, and continued to influence the contest at both ends of the court.
In recognition of his outstanding start to the season, Cooks was named Big South Player of the Week.
https://twitter.com/BigSouthMBB/status/798600880912117760