This week’s Big 10 player of the week award is a co-honor. And the two men sharing it were teammates in high school, at St. Josephs (same place where Isaiah Thomas prepped) in Chicago.
Ilinois’ Demetri McCamey earned a share of the weekly award along with Ohio State’s Evan Turner. The award marks the eighth of Turner’s career, surpassing Glenn Robinson (Purdue) and Jim Jackson’s career-record seven Player of the Week honors.
For an exclusive discussion with Evan Turner about his close friendship with McCamey click here
The interview includes this gem
“We were just so competitive growing up, sometimes I’d be at the gym at night, leaving the gym and I say: ‘Yo fat boy I just put up 400 shots, I hope you’re doing the same thing, because when I see you I’m about to kill you.’ But you know he takes it all in fun. We take it all in fun. It’s about the need to push ourselves, back in high school it was like what did Evan do? What did Demetri do? How did he do? I’m gonna beat him. So it definitely helped us a lot,” Turner replied.
For an exclusive with McCamey click here
Co-Players of the Week:
Demetri McCamey, Illinois
6-3 – G – Jr. | Bellwood, Ill. – St. Joseph
Demetri McCamey led the Illini to a pair of wins over conference foes last week, placing Illinois in a tie for second place in the Big Ten standings. The junior guard was the leading scorer in both games last week, first posting 15 points in a victory at Iowa, following with 22 points in a win over No. 5 Michigan State. Saturday’s effort marked his eighth 20-point game of the season, with the majority of his overall tally coming in the second half, accounting for 16 after the break on 6-of-7 shooting. He also dominated both games with his passing, totaling a game-high seven assists at Iowa, followed by a career-high tying 11 assists against the Spartans – the highest total in Big Ten play this year. His seven assists at Iowa led to 16 points, and his 11 assists against MSU led to 23 points, as he accounted for 54 percent of Illinois’ offense at Iowa and 58 percent versus the Spartans. McCamey also tied his season high in rebounds at Iowa with seven boards. On the week, he averaged 18.5 points, 9.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 54 percent from the field and 57 percent from behind the arc. This is the first weekly award of McCamey’s career.
Last Illinois Player of the Week: Trent Meacham (Dec. 29, 2008)
Evan Turner, Ohio State
6-7 – G – Jr. | Chicago – St. Joseph’s
Ohio State’s Evan Turner averaged 29.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3.5 steals in a pair of home wins last week. The Buckeye junior connected on 57 percent of his field goals (21-37) and 17 of 22 attempts from the charity stripe (.773) while only committing three turnovers in 80 minutes of action. Against Penn State on Sunday, Turner registered 27 points to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists. The Chicago native finished the week with a career-high tying 32 points to move into 26th on Ohio State’s all-time scoring list with 1,239 points. The 6-7 guard also added five assists and seven rebounds in the win over the Hawkeyes. Sunday’s performance marked the second 30-point effort of Turner’s career and the third 30-point game of the season for Ohio State. Turner now has 61 career games with 10 or more points, including 16 this season. The selection marks Turner’s fifth of the season, tying him with Purdue’s Glen Robinson for the single-season record.
Last Ohio State Player of the Week: Evan Turner (Jan. 18, 2010)
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