Long Earns Five Different Player Of The Week Honors

The Sun Belt Conference and state of Louisiana know and fear Shawn Long, but the Ragin' Cajun big man is starting to demand national attention.

After putting up 23 points and a season high 17 rebounds against Georgia Southern in a win, he led the Cajuns to a blowout victory over Georgia State with 23 points and 18 rebounds. In those two wins, he shot 76 percent from the floor when the Cajuns needed a pair of victories most. For his efforts, five different entities selected him as their player of the week.

Unsurprisingly, the Sun Belt Conference picked him as player of the week, and the Louisiana Sports Writers' Association followed suit. That wasn't the only ink he received either.

Performances like Long's, back-to-back, turn heads nationally. College Sports Madness selected Long as their Mid-Major Player of the Week, along with Lou Henson. Even CBS Sports couldn't ignore Long's dominant performances in the state of Georgia.

If NBA scouts had any doubt about Long's ability as an NBA player, he is doing his best to disprove them.

The man is a double-double machine. He now has double-doubles in 11 of the Cajuns' 15 games, and his 13.0 rebound per game average puts him third nationally. Frankly put, he's a beast on a glass and he is playing the most consistent basketball of his entire career. He won five awards this week, but this is just part of the whole picture.

Long is averaging more rebounds a game than LSU's Ben Simmons, who is getting talked about as a National Player of the Year Candidate. Long's draft stock is on the rise. Just look at his average numbers over the last five games (21 ppg, 15.2 rpg), they speak a pretty loud message.

Even crazier? He has done most of this on the road, ten out of fifteen games to be exact.

The Cajuns are about to begin a stretch where they play seven out of the next eight games at home, so buckle up and buy your tickets. Long is heating up, and he's taking his hot hand back to the Cajundome.