[2022-2023 MIAA Men's Basketball Athletes of the Week: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association announced its seventh MIAA Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week, presented by Shift Group, for the 2022-23 season.
 
MIAA Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week – Jaden Wells – Central Oklahoma  
Jaden Wells led No. 9- ranked Central Oklahoma to a 3-0 week over the Holiday Break which included a pair of MIAA wins with his standout performance. Wells averaged 22.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game as the Bronchos improved to 13-1 on the season and 7-1 in the MIAA. The Bronchos sophomore guard shot 47.6 percent overall and a blistering 54.5 percent from behind the three-point line, knocking down 12 threes on the week. He also sank 16-of-18 free-throws for an 88.9 percent mark. Wells currently leads the MIAA with 19.6 points per game and 3.6 three-pointers per game.  
 
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Diego Bernard – Northwest Missouri
Diego Bernard averaged a team-best 15.7 points per game and shot 72.7 percent from the field in leading Northwest to a trio of victories this past week. Bernard pulled down 4.7 rebounds and dished out 2.7 assists in the three-game span. The Bearcats senior guard tallied 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting and handed out six assists in a 93-57 non-conference win over Clarke. He secured his 16th career 20-point scoring game with a 21-point output in Northwest’s 79-58 victory over Northeastern State. Bernard went 7-of-10 from the floor against the RiverHawks. He completed the week with a 10-point effort in the Bearcats 87-65 win against Rogers State. Bernard dealt with early foul trouble and was limited to 20 minutes of action against the Hillcats.
 
Kaleb Hammeke – Fort Hays State
Kaleb Hammeke averaged 17 points per game in a pair of road wins for Fort Hays State last week. He led the Tigers in scoring in each game with 16 points against Central Missouri and 18 against Lincoln. Hammeke played all 40 minutes of each contest, adding a total of four rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and two steals for the week.
 
Sai Witt – Lincoln
Sai Witt powered Lincoln to a 78-65 win with his first double-double of the year in the Blue Tigers only game of the week, defeating Nebraska Kearney 78-65. Witt led Lincoln with 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds while shooting .538 from the field. He also dished two assists and a pair of steals as Lincoln beat the Lopers for its third-straight win.
 
ALSO NOMINATED
Julius Dixon (Missouri Western), Atavian Butler (Emporia State), Joey Saracco (Rogers State)
 
ABOUT SHIFT GROUP
Shift Group is a training and recruiting platform placing talented, retired collegiate and professional athletes in high caliber Software Sales positions. Athletes spend their lives engaging in team-based activities where they are rewarded for performance-based outcomes. Competitive drive, work ethic, and the desire to win are innate qualities of those performing at elite levels. Athletes at this level must have discipline, resilience, and grit. These are the intangible parts of any elite athlete’s identity. When combined with confidence, curiosity, and coachability, these traits separate great athletes – and great salespeople. Salesmanship can be taught. It requires the right attitude, habits, and skills – learned, practiced, and repeated in the right environment in order to be mastered. Once an athlete finishes Shift Group training, they get access to hiring managers at Startups, Fortune 500’s, and other organizations building out sales teams across the globe – with the Shift Group team coaching them through every step of the process.