The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has selected Illinois guard Brandon Paul as its Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week. And of course he’s the Big Ten Player of the Week as well.
Paul, a 6-4 junior from Gurnee, Ilinois (Warren high school), led the Illini to a 79-74 win over #5 Ohio State, scoring 43 points to go with eight rebounds and four blocks. The 43-point outburst was a career best, and marked the most points scored in a game by a Big Ten player since Purdue’s Glenn Robinson in 1994. It’s the second-highest individual scoring output of the season behind the 44 points scored by Creighton’s Greg McDermott vs. Bradley.
In his only game last week, Paul scored 28 points in the second half, including the Illini’s final 15 over the last 2:40 of the game. Paul had a ridiculously efficient evening, scoring a ton in such few shots. Paul went 11-15 from the field, 8-10 from three-point range. The eight three-pointers matched a school single-game record (Dee Brown, Kevin Turner and Trent Meachem- yes Trent Meachem, believe it or not still shares that record to this day, crazy yes).
The weekly Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week is added to the Oscar Robertson Trophy watch list, which will be released at mid-season.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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