[2022-2023 MIAA Men's Basketball Athletes of the Week: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7]
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association announced its eighth 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 has been named the Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week for the second consecutive week. Wells led No. 8 Central Oklahoma to a pair of MIAA road wins last week. The Bronchos sophomore guard averaged 20.5 points per game and shot .448 percent overall, .333 percent from behind the arc, and a perfect .1000 percent from the free-throw line. Wells also averaged 4.0 rebounds and one assist per game. In UCO’s 84-75 win at Rogers State, Wells scored his 1,000th career point in the first half and made his 200th career three-pointer in the second half of the victory.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Vinson Sigmon Jr. – Missouri Southern
Vinson Sigmon Jr. led Missouri Southern to three wins this past week and has helped the Lions to a six-game winning streak in MIAA play. For the week, Sigmon averaged 17.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game while shooting .571 percent from the field, .357 percent from three and .875 percent from the free throw line. In MSSU’s 84-63 victory over rival Pittsburg State, the junior finished with 13 points, three rebounds and two assists to go with two steals. In the Lions 68-56 win against the Tigers, Sigmon had 16 points, six rebounds and three assists, helping the Lions take down the second team mentioned in the NABC poll this season. To cap the week off, Sigmon had a career-high 23 points going 10-of-15 from the field and 3-of-6 from three with four rebounds and four assists and a steal in the Lions 75-65 win against the Lopers on the road.
Owen Long – Emporia State
Owen Long was the leading scorer on the week for No. 20-ranked Emporia State as they improved to 12-3 on the season with a pair of wins. He had a team high 14 points in the Hornets 57-48 win over Lincoln. He got things started with a three-pointer less than a minute into the game and then gave ESU their biggest lead of the night at 30-14 with 3:30 left in the half. Long then came out on fire in the Hornets 75-72 win against Central Missouri, scoring nine points on three treys in the first 3:30. Long scored 12 points in the second half, including a six of six performance from the free throw line to finish with 21 points.
Chris Whitaker – Rogers State
Chris Whitaker averaged 17.5 points in a win 84-77 over Newman and 84-75 loss to No. 8 Central Oklahoma on the week. Whitaker put up 13 points against the Jets with five rebounds. However, against the Bronchos, the senior dropped a career-high 22 points with five rebounds and three assists.
ALSO NOMINATED
Diego Bernard (Northwest Missouri), Taye Fields (Missouri Western), Gaven Pinkley (Central Missouri), Elijah Nnanabu (Fort Hays State), Sai Witt (Lincoln)
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.