The Big Ten player of the week honor for this season might have to be renamed The Jordan Murphy Award.
The Gophers junior forward won the conference's top weekly honor for the third time in a row Monday after he averaged 18.3 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.7 blocks in three wins against Alabama A&M, Massachusetts and Alabama.
Murphy, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound San Antonio native, is averaging a Big Ten-best 22.5 points and 12 rebounds per game this season. He had 19 points and 14 rebounds in an 89-84 win Saturday against No. 25 Alabama to be named most valuable player of the Barclays Center Classic in Brooklyn.
Murphy, who is tied with Duke's Marvin Bagley III with a national-best seven double-doubles, is the first to win the conference's player of the week award three straight times since Ohio State's Evan Turner in 2009-10. The only Gopher player to win the honor three times in a season was Quincy Lewis in 1998-99.
The Gophers (7-0) earned a No. 12 ranking in the Associated Press poll Monday and host No. 10 Miami in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Wednesday night.
• Former Maple Grove standout and Wisconsin guard Brad Davison was named co-Big Ten freshman of the week Monday with Michigan State's Jaren Jackson Jr. Davison averaged 15 points, 2.3 rebounds and two steals in three games last week.
Two in a row for Pitts
Gophers guard/forward Destiny Pitts won the Big Ten freshman of the week honor for the second week in row. Pitts collected the Lady Rebel Round-Up tournament MVP trophy Sunday in Las Vegas. She totaled 40 points, 22 rebounds and 10 3-pointers in wins against Wake Forest and UNLV. Pitts had a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds against the Demon Deacons, and led the Gophers with 22 points while adding nine rebounds against the Lady Rebels.
Pitts has five double-digit rebound games, three double-doubles and 80 total rebounds in her first seven games. She is third on the team in scoring, averaging 14.3 points per game.
