This December, the league honors keep flowing for Minnesota.
On Monday, Nate Mason was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week. In the previous two weeks Andre Hollins and Mo Walker had been named back-to-back Players of the Week.
Mason, who has scored in double digits seven times this season, repeated a pair of career-highs in the Gophers' only game last week -- scoring 15 points and swiping six steals in a win over Seattle.
The steady Georgia native has quietly been phenomenal for the Gophers this season and among the best freshman in the league.
Mason is Minnesota's fourth leading scorer with 9.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game and is shooting 45.7 percent from three-point range, fifth among all Big Ten players. His 3.1 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks sixth overall in the Big Ten and second among freshmen nationally, sitting on the heels only of Duke's Tyus Jones, a Minnesota native. Mason is also ranked third among freshmen nationally in steals with 2.1 per game. His defensive rebounding percentage lands 417th nationally according to kenpom.com -- impressive for a 6-foot-1 guard to say the least.
Minnesota has only had one other recipient of the Freshman of the Week honor since its instigation in 2010: Joe Coleman, who got the nod on Jan. 16 of 2012.
