The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN basketball players at the NCAA Division I level have been brights early in conference play for their respective programmes.

Buddy Hield and Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Jr have been major key players to the success of their teams as conference play sets the stage early for a postseason run in March.

Hield, still riding the wave of popularity following his record-breaking performance last Monday against the top ranked Kansas Jayhawks, was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week.

The Grand Bahama native and senior guard for the Oklahoma Sooners, Hield won the award for the third time this season and the fifth time in his career.

In the two conference games for the week, Hield averaged 38.5 points, eight rebounds and six assists while shooting 65 per cent from the field, 61 per cent from three-point range and 88 per cent from the free throw line. He now ranks second in the NCAA in scoring at 26.6 points per game while also averaging 5.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

Last Monday Hield erupted for 46 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in a 109-106 loss to Kansas and followed with 31 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks in an 86-76 win over Kansas State.

Hield tied an Oklahoma record by scoring at least 20 points in eight consecutive games, and scored at least 30 points in six games this season.

The rest of the Big 12 has combined for six individual 30-point outings on the year. He joined elite company in current NBA-All Star Blake Griffin (who had six in 35 games in the 2008-09 season) as the only players in school history with six or more 30-point games in the last two decades.

The No.2 ranked Sooners will return to action tonight against the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the latest edition of the Bedlam Series.

Over in the Big 10, Lourawls Nairn has battled his own case of plantar fasciitis but his Michigan State Spartans have remained among the top five teams in the country in the polls despite missing leading scorer and rebounder Denzel Valentine.

Valentine returned to the lineup and the Spartans won their third straight with a 92-65 win over Penn State.

Nairn finished with five assists to lead the Spartans in assists for the seventh time this season. The Spartans are 6-1 when he leads the team.

Nairn discussed his troubles dealing with the injury with Graham Counch of the Lansing State Journal.

“It burns. At night it hurts. I have tons of nightmares,” he said. “It’s been frustrating, but I’ll get through it. When Denzel went out, my first instinct in my head was to lead this team, get everybody shots, get everybody in the right places. My thing was not for me to try to do more, step outside of my element, out of my game, but to get us wins. I wanted to stay the same person, but lead at a higher level, get people more shots, get Bryn [Forbes] more shots.”

As the leader and floor general of the team, Nairn has opted to play through the injury rather than spend time on the sidelines allowing it to heal. He is currently averaging 3.8 points and a team leading 4.6 assists per game while the Spartans are currently ranked No. 5 in the polls.

In their next game they face a rematch against the Iowa Hawkeyes at home in the Breslin Centre 7pm Thursday.

The Hawkeyes handed the 16-1 Spartans their lone loss of the season, a game without Valentine in the lineup.