Brits in College: Week 1 Recap

By Rowan Shiell

Welcome to the inaugural Hoopsfix.com weekly update of division one British basketball players in the NCAA, where we will highlight the best and notable performances of the past week. All the players can be found on this list.

Except for a few players, like Aaron Geramipoor, who plays for Seton Hall, most of the guys play in the smaller conferences and opening week is normally an opportunity to beat a major conference team. The success rate isn’t very high but such a win could help secure one of the 68 places in the NCAA tournament, providing the teams also takes care of business in their conference.

Last year Ashley Hamilton scored 23 points as Loyola Marymount took down UCLA. Although this feat was repeated on opening day, when South Alabama upset Florida State (who, ironically enough, feature London’s Robert Gilchrist), our guys came up short in their respective power conference game although there were still some great performances.

Player Of the Week

Keith Rendelman, UNC Wilmington senior forward.

Rendleman was the only player on the list to average a double double, last season, with averages of 15.3 points and 10.5 rebounds. He started right where he left off with 14 points and 12 rebounds in a win against UNC-Ashville.  The 6’8” forward followed that up by scoring 14 points to go with 9 rebounds in a lopsided loss to Richmond.

Best of the Rest

Ashley Hamilton, Loyola Marymount, senior forward.

Hamilton only played 11 minutes in the first game of the season as his team defeated Pacifica college by a score of 108-49. Hamilton tallied 11 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. Unfortunately LMU missed an opportunity for an early season win, against Southern Methodist University.  They lost  by a score of 73-58. Hamilton played 38 minutes and had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals. He made 11 of 13 from the free throw line.

Injuries have prevented us from seeing what Hamilton can really do, so far in his college career, so hopefully he can pull it all together in his senior season.

Alasdair Fraser, Maine, junior forward.

Fraser scored 21 points and had 15 rebounds in a loss to Holy Cross on Wednesday. A performance like this deserves serious player of the week consideration, but Fraser only scored 2 points to go with 8 rebounds, in 34 minutes , on opening day.

Ben Mockford, St Francis (NY), junior guard.

On opening night, Mockford scored 14 points in the starting guard spot, for an easy victory against Lafayette, then scored 13 points on Monday as St Francis lost by 25 to major conference player, Illinois.

Andrew Lawrence, College of Charleston, senior point guard.

After representing Great Britain in the Olympics, Lawrence had a great start to the season as they defeated Towson, 75-58.  The 6’1” point guard scored 16 points, had 7 rebounds and 5 assists in 29 minutes. Highlights:

Just like some other players on here, Lawrence came up short in a test against Big East contender, St Johns.  He score only 7 points, dished out 2 assists and had 2 steals and was one foul short of being disqualified as his team lost 64-53.

Will Neighbour, University of Arkansas Little Rock, junior forward.

Will Neighbour justified his First team All Sun Belt selection with a double double (13 points and 13 rebounds), in the season opener, as his team easily won against Tennessee-Martin.

In the second game, against Louisiana Tech, he played 17 minutes in the loss and had 6 points, 2 blocks and 2 rebounds.

Ross Wilson, Rice, freshman forward.

Impressively as a freshman, Newcastle’s Ross Wilson has started both Rice’s games in opening week. He finished with 3 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist in a 17 minute opening night loss to St. Thomas (Tx), before following that up on Wednesday with 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block on 4/5 shooting in 27 minutes in a win over St Edwards.

Extras

• As always, there are a number of players who haven’t got off the bench in opening week, and a number of others seeing limited minutes.
• Manchester big man, Jack Crook, had 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal in just 7 minutes in his D1 debut with Seattle. Unfortunately, he also fouled out in that short period of time – but seems to be a crowd pleaser; after he threw down a dunk he had the fans chanting god save the queen.
• Another Manchester big man, Lee Goldsbrough, is now starting and seeing decent minutes with Providence in his Junior year after playing sparingly in his first two years.
• Raphell Thomas-Edwards, now a sophomore at Buffalo, has already seen more minutes in his first four games than he saw in his entire freshman year last season.

Image Credit: Star News Online