By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Errick McCollum was named 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season Round 8 MVP, Euroleague Basketball announced Thursday.
McCollum, 33, was the Round 6 MVP as well. His brilliant Round 8 performance with 33 points powered by 9/15 field goals pushed Lokomotiv Kuban to the home win versus Partizan NIS. The generated 37 PIR topped all players in action Tuesday and Wednesday to get the latest MVP nod.
CJ McCollum’s brother has become a EuroCup legend through five campaigns in the European club continental competition. Besides capturing the MVP of the Round award for the sixth time, he became champion and season MVP in 2016 and ranked first in the 2013-14 scoring list.
Per the press release: “Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar guard Errick McCollum was unstoppable on Wednesday, leading his team to a 101-94 win in a back-and-forth affair against Partizan NIS Belgrade, and earned his second MVP of the Round award this season. McCollum netted a career-high 33 points, making 4 of 8 two-pointers, career-best 5 triples on 7 attempts, and also 10 of 12 free throws. He also had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and drew 7 fouls, accumulating performance index rating of 37, the highest in Round 8. In the process, McCollum moved into second place all time in career EuroCup PIR with 1,532, and also in scoring with 1,404 career points. Two players with PIR 31 sit behind McCollum on the list of this round’s best performers, Jaka Blazic of Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana and Justin Cobbs of Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. Blazic led Cedevita to an 85-97 upset of Valencia Basket with game-high 24 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 10 fouls drawn. Cobbs led Buducnost’s 82-86 win over Mincidelice JL Bourg-en-Bresse with a game-high 24 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds and 7 drawn fouls. Next best PIR, 30, belongs to Maik Kotsar of Hamburg Towers, who had 15 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals in a road win over Dolomiti Energia Trento. Rounding out the list of this week’s top performers are Jakub Karolak of Slask Wroclaw and Vladimir Brodziansky of Joventut Badalona, each with PIR 29.
Individual highs: Simon Birgander, Joventut Badalona, 14 rebounds
McCollum led all scorers in Round 8 with career-high 33 points, which is also tied for EuroCup high thise season. McCollum also jump atop the scoring charts for the season with 22.8 points per game. Joventut’s Simon Birgander had 14 rebounds, more than any other player this round. Jordan Caroline of Trento is the rebounding leader with 8.3 on average. Milos Teodosic of Virtus Segafredo Bologna led all players this week, and tied a season-high mark with 13 assists. Teodosic is the new leader in assists, posting 8.1 per contest. Four players had 4 steals this round: Hamburg’s duo of Kotsar and Justus Hollatz, Trento’s Johnathan Williams and Victor Sanders of Umana Reyer Venice. Three players average EuroCup-high 2.0 steals per game: Aleksa Avramovic of Partizan, Derek Needham of Frutti Extra Bursaspor and Kevin Hervey of Virtus. Vince Hunter of Boulogne Metropolitans 92 had 3 blocks, the most in Round 8. Octavius Ellis of Turk Telekom Ankara is the top shot-blocker this season with 2.3 blocks per game.”
Also, Zach Auguste headlines the Top 10 Plays of Round 8.
Action will resume with Round 9 scheduled to be held 11-12 January.