Nick Richards racking up weekly honors

Kentucky Wildcats center Nick Richards has won the SEC Co-Player of the Week for the second time this season, following two dominant performances against Georgia and Texas Tech.

In addition, Richards was named the NCAA March Madness National Player of the Week. He also earned Co-Player of the Week honors from ESPN’s Jay Bilas.

Throughout the week Richards averaged 22.5 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks. Including the 25 point, 14 rebound performance against the most hostile crowd Kentucky has seen in a long while. Richards also hit two free throws down the stretch to essentially ice the game, giving UK a two point win.

This may be Richards’ second weekly honor of the season, but I believe that Richards has firmly cemented his place as a legit contender for the SEC Player of the Year award. In Richards’ dominant performance over Texas Tech, he became the second player, only behind Anthony Davis, to put up 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks in a single game.

Richards came into the season averaging 4.5 points and 4 rebounds per game, and now he might be Kentucky’s best player this season.

What a turnaround for the junior.