[2022-2023 MIAA Men's Basketball Athletes of the Week: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association announced its 12th 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 – Stevie Strong – Newman
Stevie Strong tied the Newman single-game scoring record with 40 points in the Jets 84-74 win over Nebraska Kearney. It was Strong’s second 40-point game of the season as he set the single-game record in the Jets first game of the season with 40 points against Concordia-St. Paul. Strong’s 40 points also leads the MIAA this season for most points scored in a single game. The sophomore went 7-of-12 from beyond the arc in the game and has now scored 10-plus points in every game he has played in this season (21), averaging 18.3 points per game. Stevie averaged 29 points in two games last week and shot 50.0 percent from three.
 
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Jaden Wells – Central Oklahoma
Jaden Wells averaged 21.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game this week as he led No. 6 Central Oklahoma to a pair of MIAA wins over Nebraska Kearney and Fort Hays State in Hamilton Field House. The third-year sophomore guard hit seven three-pointers in two games. He also averaged 2.0 steals per game and had zero turnovers on the week.
 
Diego Bernard – Northwest Missouri
Diego Bernard notched his 10th 20-point game of the season in a 63-52 home win over Emporia State. Bernard connected on his first six field goal attempts on his way to a 24-point performance against the Hornets. Bernard added 10 points in 19 minutes of action in the Bearcats 63-52 win over Washburn. Bernard went 10-of-18 from the floor against ESU. He added three rebounds, three steals, two assists and a blocked shot in the 79-53 victory against the Hornets. Bernard was limited by early fouls on Saturday but still went 4-of-6 from the floor for a 10-point effort. He grabbed three rebounds to go along with two steals, two assists and a blocked shot against the Ichabods. Bernard is currently the MIAA’s leading scorer in league play at 19.0 points per game. He is shooting 57.8 percent from the floor to rank No. 3 in the league in field goal percentage.
 
Artese Staleton – Lincoln
Artese Stapleton averaged 20.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals to lead Lincoln to a 2-0 week with wins over Missouri Southern and Pittsburg State. Stapleton scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Lincoln to its first season-sweep over MSSU since 1995-96. Stapleton then tallied 17 points and five assists in the Blue Tigers 90-71 win over PSU. Lincoln has now won five-straight home games and eight of their last nine contests to move into third in the MIAA standings after finishing last in the league in 2021-22.
 
ALSO NOMINATED
Chris Whitaker (Rogers State), Julius Dixon (Missouri Western), Elijah Nnanabu (Fort Hays State), Alijah Comithier (Emporia State), Sean Evans (Nebraska Kearney), Gaven Pinkley (Central Missouri)
 
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.