His hard work in the wee hours of the morning is being rewarded.
Eastern Washington University men’s basketball senior men’s basketball player Jacob Wiley was awarded Monday with National Mid-Major Player of the Week honors, as well as Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, from College Sports Madness. He was also chosen by the league office as Big Sky Conference Player of the Week for the second week in a row after scoring 51 more points in EWU’s home sweep.
Eastern Washington senior Jake Wiley / courtesy of EWU athletics
“I am always happy when one of our players receives national recognition,” said Eastern head coach Jim Hayford of the 6-foot-7 graduate transfer who routinely shows up at 6:30 a.m. to get in extra shooting prior to EWU’s morning practice. “That’s true even more so at this time because of all the hard work Jake has put in.”
In victories over Northern Arizona (84-62) and Southern Utah (83-68), Wiley made 67.7 percent of his shots from the field (21-of-31) and 9-of-10 free throws, and added 16 rebounds, nine assists, eight blocked shots and a pair of steals. He scored 31 points versus NAU on 14-of-16 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.
Selected as the Big Sky Conference co-Player of the Week on Jan. 17, in the last four games Wiley has averaged 28.5 points per game. He has made 46-of-63 shots from the field (73.0 percent) and 20-of-22 free throws (90.9 percent), and is also averaging 8.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.0 steals per game.
“Jake is having an outstanding senior season as he gets more and more comfortable with his teammates and our offensive scheme,” added Hayford, whose team plays at Montana Thursday and Montana State on Saturday. “The results speak for themselves.”
For the season, he is averaging 17.5 points per game overall on 62.9 percent shooting to rank 11th in the nation and first in the league. He’s also averaging 3.0 blocked shots (first in the league and sixth nationally) and has made 85.9 percent from the free throw line (fourth in the league and 55th nationally). In addition, he is averaging 8.2 rebounds on the season (third in the league and 87th nationally) and 2.5 assists per game.
In league-only statistics, Wiley is ranked in the top three in four different categories during what will be a one-year career at EWU. He leads in rebounding (9.3) and blocked shots (2.7), and is second in scoring (24.6) and third in field goal percentage (.673). He’s also made 85.0 percent of his free throws in league play (eighth) and has averaged 3.4 assists (11th) and 1.0 steals.
He has had at least 27 points in three of his last four games, and at least 21 in six of EWU’s seven league games. For the season, he has scored at least 20 eight times and in double figures in all but two of EWU’s 20 games. In addition, he has had four double figure rebounding performances, including a season-high 14 against Montana on Jan. 7.
Prior to his 30-point output versus NAU on Jan. 19, he had had career-high performances of 27 and 36 points, respectively, in a victory over Idaho State on Jan. 12 and a three-point loss to Weber State two days later. His performance at Weber State equaled the 16th-most in school history.
Press release courtesy of Dave Cook – Eastern Washington Sports Information. All Rights Reserved.
