Belmont's next NBA prospect, Dylan Windler, is the CBS Sports College Basketball National Player of the Week.
The senior wing went on the road and helped Belmont keep its at-large case respectable thanks to wins at Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State. The Bruins are 19-4 and coach Rick Byrd seems to have one of his best teams ever.
Windler averaged 30.5 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals last week, highlighted by a career-high 41 points in the 96-86 win against Morehead State. In that game, Windler hit eight 3-pointers. The 41 is one point short of Belmont's single-game record since the program went to Division I in 1999-00.
In the previous game, Windler has 20 points and 14 boards against EKU. Per Belmont, Windler is the only player in college basketball putting up better than 20.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. (His exact averages: 20.3, 10.3, 2.6.)
Windler has good talent around him -- freshman Nick Muszynski could be the next program great -- but this senior campaign has been even better than anticipated. With a true shooting percentage of 64.7, Windler is one of the more efficient players in college basketball. Plus, he ranks as one of the elite defensive rebounders, grabbing 25.5 percent of Belmont's boards on that end of the floor when he's in the game.
To top it off, he's one of four Bruins shooting 40 percent from 3-point range. It was a strong week from Windler -- and Belmont's going to need more of that. Four of the team's final six regular season games will come on the road. The Bruins can probably afford only one more loss until Selection Sunday if they want to have a real shot at getting into the tournament without taking the auto bid in the OVC.
