College Hoops Player of the Week: Erick Green, Virginia Tech

Player of the Week: Erick Green, Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech wasn’t supposed to have a chance this season. Not only was head coach Seth Greenberg fired at the end of April after his entire coaching staff had left during the offseason, but without Greenberg at the helm, both Dorian Finney-Smith, a rising sophomore, and Montrezl Harrell, Greenberg’s star recruit in the Class of 2012, decided to continue their careers elsewhere. When former assistant James Johnson was hired, most believed that it was an empty cupboard he was inheriting; a rebuilding job that would take a couple of seasons to make relevant.

Enter Erick Green. The star point guard for the Hokies has gone from one of the ACC’s best-kept secrets the past two years to a guy that is legitimately deserving of all-america consideration. After going for 24 points, five boards and five assists in a win over Iowa in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and following that up with a 28 point performance in a win over a ranked Oklahoma State team last week, Green is averaging 24.9 points, 4.4 assists and 40 boards. He’s also shooting at ridiculous rates (51.6/37.5/87.7 are his splits) while posting a 2.2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. For those that are into the stats, he’s currently the most efficient player in the country that uses more than 28% of his team’s possessions.

Making those numbers all the more important is that Green is spearheading a new style of attack. He told CBSSports.com that the team’s motto is “bring your track shoes“, which makes it all the more important for Johnson to have an efficient, talented ball-handler. Undefeated Virginia Tech is one of the nation’s most surprising teams, and Green is the biggest reason for that. This week proved it.

The All-They-Were-Good-Too Team:

• G: Dez Wells, Maryland: Dez Wells set career-highs in back-to-back games this week, going for 23 points on 9-11 shooting in a 20 point win at Northwestern and following that up with 25 points in a win over George Mason on Sunday. When it was announced that Wells would be eligible for the Terps this season, the general consensus was that it would make Maryland a competitor in the ACC. That was before we knew that he was capable of putting up scoring numbers like this. With NC State, North Carolina and Florida State faltering, could it be that Wells makes Maryland the second best team in the league?

• G: TJ Price, Western Kentucky: The Hilltoppers started off league play in the Sun Belt with two roads wins thanks in large part to Price. The sophomore averaged 26.5 points, 8.5 boards and 3.5 assists while shooting 54.3% from the floor and 42.1% from three.

• F: Nik Stauskas, Michigan: Trey Burke is Michigan’s star. Tim Hardaway is their second option. Mitch McGary and Glenn Robinson III are the superstar freshmen. But fellow frosh Nik Stauskas is quietly putting together a great season. After averaging 21.0 points in wins against NC State and at Bradley, he’s averaging 14.3 points while shooting 57.7% from the floor, 62.1% from three and 97.5% from the free throw line.

• F: James Southerland, Syracuse: Syracuse played just a single game this week, but Southerland’s performance in that one game was on a different level. He finished with 35 points on 12-17 shooting (9-13 from three) as the Orange went into Fayetteville and knocked off a good Arkansas team. He’s now averaging 19.2 points and shooting 54.5% from three for the Orange despite coming off of the bench.

• C: Jeff Withey, Kansas: Withey put together one of the most dominating performances from a post player in recent memory against San Jose State on Monday, finishing with 16 points, 12 boards and 12 blocks while notching just the second triple-double in Kansas basketball history. (That’s impressive.) he followed that up with 17 points, five boards and three blocks in a win over Oregon State. Withey’s averaging an absurd 5.7 blocks thus far.

• Bench: Karvel Anderson (Robert Morris), Raheem Appleby (Louisiana Tech), Reggie Johnson (Miami),  Mike Muscala (Bucknell), Mason Plumlee (Duke), Nick Russell and Jalen Jones (SMU)

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.