BYU basketball: Yoeli Childs named WCC Player of the Week

BYU basketball’s Yoeli Childs had a great week and the West Coast Conference is rewarding him for it, naming the star big man the Player of the Week (Jan. 7-14).

BYU basketball’s star big man Yoeli Childs had himself one heck of a two-game stretch against Pepperdine and Santa Clara. Now the West Coast Conference has rewarded him for it.

The WCC named Childs the Player of the Week on Monday, making him the second Cougar to win the award.

(Elijah Bryant is the other Cougar Cager with the honor. His came on December 18, after he led BYU basketball to a win over rival Utah).

Childs was a huge part in back-to-back wins for the Cougars last week. Things started against Pepperdine on January 11, where BYU defeated the Waves 83-63. Childs scored 21 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out a then career-best six assists.

On January 13, Childs and BYU basketball kept things rolling against Santa Clara. The Cougars defeated the Broncos 84-50 and Childs nearly finished with a triple-double. He fell just short, but put up an impressive stat line of 22 points, 13 rebounds and a new career-best eight assists.

Overall, Childs averaged 21.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and seven assists. He shot an impressive 63 percent on the week.

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Not too shabby for the former four-star recruit.

This type of play is exactly what BYU basketball needs from Childs in order to make some waves in the West Coast Conference. For my money, Childs is one of the top three players in the conference. However, BYU’s loss to St. Mary’s shows But, with a loss to Pacific already in the books, the team will have to be nearly perfect the rest of the way.

They’ll get an opportunity to go for three wins in a row on Thursday night, when they host lowly Loyola-Marymount.