Brits in College: Week 18 Recap - Hoopsfix.com

Brits in College: Week 18 Recap

The regular season was wrapped up over the weekend, as mainly tournament games were on this week. If your favorite player isn’t included below then it is highly likely that their season is over or they are waiting on an invitation to a post season tournament.

Will Neighbour, who was recently named to the All Sun Belt Second team, is still out after suffering a shoulder injury against Texas Arlington in late February. UALR did win their first tournament game without their leading scorer but a return date for the 6’10” senior has yet to be decided.

If Neighbour wasn’t injured we would have at least four teams with British players still in the hunt for a championship or tournament bid.

Gabe Olaseni and Iowa dropped the ball against Northwestern last night leaving their NCAA tournament hopes hanging in the balance. Midway through conference play, Iowa seemed to be on their way to securing a bid but then dropped six of their last ten games. Now it’s left in the hands of the selection committee to decide if they are dance worthy.

The other team with tournament aspirations is UC Irvine which features the dynamic guard tandem of Luke Nelson and Alex Young. They are the Big West regular season champions but they still have to win the tournament to secure a bid.

Florida State finished middle of the pack in the ACC so an at large bid is more than likely out of the question at this point. However hope is alive as they are still in the tournament after defeating Maryland last night. They play ACC regular season champions Virginia later tonight.

Florida State features Robert Gilchrist who did a great interview with Sam Neter recently, if you missed it check it out here.

Aaron Geramipoor also remains in with a shot, after his Seton Hall Pirates upset Villanova 64-63 on a buzzer beating jumper in the quarter finals of the Big East Tournament. Geramipoor saw just 1 minute in the win.

Next week will be bringing you our post season awards, naming a Hoopsfix.com player of the year as well as a newcomer of the year and our top five players.

Player of the Week

Luke Nelson | UC Irvine | Freshman| Guard

UC Irvine clinched the top spot in the Big West Conference and number one seed in the tournament with a win against UC Davis on Saturday.

Luke Nelson scored 10 points, grabbed three rebounds, dished out four assists and stole the ball twice.

Then in his first tournament game, Nelson played like anything but a freshman, filling out the stat sheet with 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals, as UC Irvine got by UC Riverside on Thursday.

Nelson’s numbers were not as good as Soko’s but we have to reward the player who led his team to a championship.

Nelson was recently voted as the Big West Freshman of the year and also to the All Big West Second Team.

Best of the rest

Alex Young | UC Irvine | Guard | sophomore

Alex Young, who received a Big West Honorable Mention, had a total of seven points, 10 assists, eight rebounds and three blocks (unusual for a point guard) in both games.

UC Irvine takes on Cal Poly Mustangs later on Friday night.

Ovie Soko | Duquesne | Senior | Forward

Duquesne won their last regular conference game which was enough to earn them a tenth seed in the Atlantic Ten tournament. Soko scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds.

Duquesne has yet to win an Atlantic Ten tournament game since 2009 and on Thursday that didn’t change against Richmond.

“The system they run, the offense, the way they run through it, they’ll use all of the shot clock if they have to,” said Soko, who had 23 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, a block and two steals in what was probably his last college game. “So when you get down to a team like that, it’s tough. We just weren’t able to really get back into it.”

In his lone season at Duquesne, after taking the requisite red shirt season for transferring from UAB, Soko averaged 18.4 points, 8 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.

He was named to the All Atlantic Ten Third team.

Michael Ocherobia | Western Illinois | Forward | Junior

Michael Ocherobia season came to an end with a loss to South Dakota State in the Summit league tournament on Saturday. The senior scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds in the in the blowout loss. He also blocked two shots.

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