Photo by: Rob Goldberg
Gardner Named USBWA National Freshman-Of-The-Week
January 15, 2019 | Men's Basketball
ST. LOUIS (USBWA) – ECU forward Jayden Gardner is the Wayman Tisdale National Freshman of the Week for games ending the week of Jan. 13. Gardner was selected by CBSSports.com's Matt Norlander, in partnership with the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Norlander's popular weekly freshman watch column will continue to feature nation's the top freshmen each week in addition to the national player of the week. Later in the season, the USBWA will release a midseason watch list before naming finalists for the award. This season marks the first time a weekly national freshman of the week will be selected and, each Tuesday through Feb. 26, a standout first-year player will be chosen for the honor.
Gardner, a 6-6 forward from Wake Forest, N.C., averaged 26.5 points, 14.0 rebounds and 54.3-percent shooting in ECU's (8-8) competitive losses at Memphis and UCF.
"Against UCF, Gardner was unreal: he had 35 points and 20 rebounds, putting up a stat line that even Zion Williamson probably won't duplicate this season," Norlander writes of Gardner. "It's the first time in American Athletic Conference history that any player has had a 30/20 double-double.
"Beyond that, any player scoring 35 points and grab 20 rebounds is a rarity," he continued. "There's only been seven instances of the that happening in college basketball in the past eight seasons, none of which came from freshmen."
The 35 points and 20 rebounds were AAC records for a freshman, and the conference awarded Gardner its Freshman of the Week honor for a third time this season (he shared it this week). He was only the 11th player in AAC history to score at least 35 points in a game and the third to grab 20 boards. He scored 18 points and had eight rebounds in the week's earlier game at Memphis.
Gardner currently leads the AAC in scoring at 19.4 points per game and is second in rebounding at 9.5 rebounds per game. He leads the conference in free throws made (111) and attempted (147) and is shooting 75.5 percent at the charity stripe, while hitting on 55.6 percent of his field goal attempts.
Norlander's popular weekly freshman watch column will continue to feature nation's the top freshmen each week in addition to the national player of the week. Later in the season, the USBWA will release a midseason watch list before naming finalists for the award. This season marks the first time a weekly national freshman of the week will be selected and, each Tuesday through Feb. 26, a standout first-year player will be chosen for the honor.
Gardner, a 6-6 forward from Wake Forest, N.C., averaged 26.5 points, 14.0 rebounds and 54.3-percent shooting in ECU's (8-8) competitive losses at Memphis and UCF.
"Against UCF, Gardner was unreal: he had 35 points and 20 rebounds, putting up a stat line that even Zion Williamson probably won't duplicate this season," Norlander writes of Gardner. "It's the first time in American Athletic Conference history that any player has had a 30/20 double-double.
"Beyond that, any player scoring 35 points and grab 20 rebounds is a rarity," he continued. "There's only been seven instances of the that happening in college basketball in the past eight seasons, none of which came from freshmen."
The 35 points and 20 rebounds were AAC records for a freshman, and the conference awarded Gardner its Freshman of the Week honor for a third time this season (he shared it this week). He was only the 11th player in AAC history to score at least 35 points in a game and the third to grab 20 boards. He scored 18 points and had eight rebounds in the week's earlier game at Memphis.
Gardner currently leads the AAC in scoring at 19.4 points per game and is second in rebounding at 9.5 rebounds per game. He leads the conference in free throws made (111) and attempted (147) and is shooting 75.5 percent at the charity stripe, while hitting on 55.6 percent of his field goal attempts.
2018-19 Wayman Tisdale National Freshmen of the Week
• Week ending Dec. 2: Zion Williamson, Duke (Atlantic Coast Conference)
• Week ending Dec. 9: RJ Barrett, Duke (Atlantic Coast Conference)
• Week ending Dec. 16: Wynston Tabbs, Boston College (Atlantic Coast Conference)
• Week ending Dec. 23: Mac McClung, Georgetown (Big East Conference)
• Week ending Dec. 30: Tyler Herro, Kentucky (Southeastern Conference)
• Week ending Jan. 6: Antoine Davis, Detroit (Horizon League)
• Week ending Jan. 13: Jaylen Gardner, ECU (American Athletic Conference)
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Players Mentioned
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Thursday, February 26
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Thursday, February 12
