KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association announced its third Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week, presented by Shift Group, for the 2023-24 season.
MIAA Men’s Basketball Athlete of the Week – Alijah Comithier, Emporia State
Alijah Comithier averaged 21.0 points and shot 57.1 percent from the field, 66.7 percent from the three-point arc and 90.9 percent from the free throw line as the No. 24-ranked Hornets ran their winning streak to six games. Comithier hit 7-of-10 form the field and 5-of-7 from the three-point line for 23 points with five rebounds and five assists in a 89-64 win over Panhandle State. The senior guard then scored 19 points with a 3-of-5 effort from beyond the arc with six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in the 82-72 win over Indianapolis.
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
JaRon Thames – Missouri Western
Leading the charge in Missouri Western’s first 5-0 start since 2005, JaRon Thames was an all-around player last week averaging 17 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. Thames played the role of hero in the Griffons 84-82 win over William Jewell. He hit the game-winning floater on previously unbeaten Cardinals on the road while leading the team with 19 points. Thames then dropped a team-high 15 points on Bethel to round out a perfect week, shooting 54.0 percent from the field through two games. With 1.5 blocks and two steals per game, the St. Louis native has his team as one of just four remaining undefeated programs in the MIAA.
Andrew Orr – Washburn
Andrew Orr averaged 18.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 steals per game playing only 22.5 minutes per game in two wins last week. Orr scored 12 points with a season-high eight rebounds in 20 minutes in the Ichabods 97-76 win over Ottawa. Then, in Washburn’s 98-50 win over Avila, the junior scored 25 points in 24 minutes of playing time going 10-of-13 from the field. The ten field goals tied his career high. For the week Orr was 7-of-7 from the free throw line and was 15-of-28 from the field for a 57.0 percent clip.
ALSO NOMINATED
Wes Dreamer (Northwest Missouri), Kaleb Hammeke (Fort Hays State), Keith Kiner III (Central Missouri), Anthony Allen (Northeastern State)
ABOUT SHIFT GROUP
Shift Group is a training and recruiting platform placing talented, retired collegiate and professional athletes in high caliber Software Sales positions. Athletes spend their lives engaging in team-based activities where they are rewarded for performance-based outcomes. Competitive drive, work ethic, and the desire to win are innate qualities of those performing at elite levels. Athletes at this level must have discipline, resilience, and grit. These are the intangible parts of any elite athlete’s identity. When combined with confidence, curiosity, and coachability, these traits separate great athletes – and great salespeople. Salesmanship can be taught. It requires the right attitude, habits, and skills – learned, practiced, and repeated in the right environment in order to be mastered. Once an athlete finishes Shift Group training, they get access to hiring managers at Startups, Fortune 500’s, and other organizations building out sales teams across the globe – with the Shift Group team coaching them through every step of the process.
2023-24 MIAA MEN’S BASKETBALL ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
WEEK ONE: Jaden Wells, Central Oklahoma
WEEK TWO: Wes Dreamer, Northwest Missouri
WEEK THREE: Alijah Comithier, Emporia State
