MMBOW #10: Lester Hudson, Tennessee-Martin

There's certainly precedent for being chosen multiple times in a season... back when we did this five times a week (hoo boy, Tuesdays were tough), Nick "Big Freak" Fazekas of Nevada was a regular attendee of our daily TMM party. And truthfully, there really weren't any mid-major players who had as good a seven-day stretch as the one enjoyed by our eighth weekly choice of the year. So for the second time in three weeks, the nation's second leading scorer is our first leading MMBOW. Lester Hudson of Tennessee-Martin is our 10th Mid-Majority Baller of the Week for the 2008-09 season.

Time will tell if Mr. Hudson will transcend the D-League level that Fazekas eventually topped out at, or if he'll get a cool nickname that precedes him. We do know that he's good at playing basketball, which he did twice in front of people last week. In the first game, an ESPNU date at Tennessee Tech, the 6-2 senior guard blasted the OVC opposition for 29 points (on 14-for-25 shooting), nabbed 10 rebounds, dished seven assists and stole five steals as his Skyhawks won by 11. Two days later, the UTM road trip continued at Jacksonville State, a team that put together a surprisingly solid non-conference record. Our multiple-MMBOW scored 25 in that one, hit four 3's, and cleaned the glass eight times -- four times on either end. Once again, the Skyhawks emerged victorious, this time by a much wider margin.

So the Skyhawk star had what could be considered a prototypical MMBOW-worthy week: he led the team to two wins, on the road no less, and he stuffed the stat sheet twice. More importantly, however, he helped re-establish Tennessee-Martin as a scary postseason threat. As of this writing, this team sits at 5-3 fourth in the league, not having worked off three early losses in conference play, but there's no denying the momentum. All told, UTM has won nine of its last 10.

I have never actually interviewed Mr. Hudson, something I hope to rectify later this season, but he apparently knows about this site. He's also, according to the now-classic story of Ben from Cincinnati, a great guy with a great mom. So if you're reading this, "Les," congratulations. You are, once again, the Baller of the Week.

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