Jordan Mickey and Johnny O'Bryant - SEC POTW / National POW & FOW!!!

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The Southeastern Conference announced its weekly men's basketball honors on Monday, recognizing outstanding performances from around the league after another week of conference play.

LSU’s Johnny O’Bryant III, a 6-foot-9, 256-pound junior forward from Cleveland, Miss, was named SEC Player of the Week after averaging 26 points, nine rebounds and two assists in wins over Kentucky and Arkansas. O’Bryant III had his highest scoring game of the season against Kentucky with 29 points to go with nine rebounds, two blocks and a steal. He followed that up with 23 points, nine rebounds four assists and a block against Arkansas. He shot 63.8 percent (23-of-36) from the field in the two games. He has five straight double figure scoring games that has raised his scoring average two full points from 13.8 to 15.8. In his last five games he has led LSU to a 4-1 record while averaging 21.6 points, hitting 58.6 percent from the field.

LSU’s Jordan Mickey, a 6-foot-8, 220-pound freshman forward from Arlington, Texas, was named SEC?Freshman of the Week after averaging 18 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks in wins against Kentucky and Arkansas. He recorded his sixth double-double of the year with 22 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks against Arkansas. He started the week with 14 points, six rebounds and five blocks against Kentucky. His 11 blocks on the week moved his season total to 75, just 25 shy of becoming just the second LSU player (joining Shaquille O’Neal) to block 100 shots in a season.

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Johnny O’Bryant III led LSU to a pair of SEC victories highlighted by an upset over Kentucky. His play this past week has earned him NetScouts Basketball’s National Player of the Week honors for games through February 2nd.
The junior out of Cleveland, Missouri started with a season-high 29 points (12-20 FG) on Tuesday against Kentucky and continued his play into Saturday where he scored 23 points (11-16 FG) in an 88-74 win over Arkansas. He also contributed nine rebounds in each contest.
“I really tried to attack them,” O’Bryant told the Associated Press after the Kentucky game. “I knew that they were young guys and I had an advantage in experience and body-wise. I was going at them all night.”
A former McDonald’s All-American out of high school, O’Bryant didn’t have the type of production in his first two seasons that were expected of him partly because of injuries. This year, however, he’s taken a step forward and is averaging 15.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game while shooting 53 percent from the field.
He’s a bit of a tweener at 6-foot-9, but O’Bryant has shown good post moves and a knack for rebounding that make him an intriguing post prospect. If he can add a consistent jump shot to stretch the floor, it would certainly boost his stock as a power forward.
With LSU winning four of its last five games, the Tigers are putting together a nice run that they’ll need to make the NCAA tournament. Led by O’Bryant and freshman Jordan Mickey, LSU should have a good chance of qualifying for the tourney.

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Since the start of the season, LSU forward Jordan Mickey has seen his name in this column on a weekly basis. He has been just outside the top five in the Freshman of the Year watch all season, proving himself as one of the most consistent newcomers in the country.

Last week, though, Mickey took it to another level in two big games -- and is this week's National Freshman of the Week as a result.

It started in Tuesday's showdown against Kentucky and the Wildcats' big man duo of Julius Randle and Willie Cauley-Stein. Mickey finished with 14 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots. Overall, he was the best freshman on the country that night, which is certainly saying something given the Wildcats' crop of newcomers.

Mickey took it up a notch over the weekend against Arkansas. Going against fellow freshman Bobby Portis, Mickey went for 22 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks, shooting 9-for-17 from the field and controlling the interior. For the week, Mickey averaged 18.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 5.5 blocks, while shooting 14-for-25 from the field and 8-for-10 from the free-throw line.

On the season, the 6-foot-8 Texas native is averaging 13.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.8 blocks, shooting 56.3 percent from the field and an impressive 74.2 percent from the free-throw line.

He will continued to be overshadowed within the SEC by Kentucky's stud group of freshmen and on a national level by the future top-five draft picks, but Mickey has shown for three months that he is one of the best freshmen in the country -- at both ends of the floor.

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