Pittsburgh—On December 24th, Derrick Colter became the first Duquesne basketball player to be named outright A-10 Rookie of the Week in back-to-back weeks since Robert Mitchell back in 2007. What a fantastic Christmas present for the 5-11, 175 pound freshman point guard.
In his two games last week, against Western Michigan and UL-Lafayette, Colter averaged 25.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists, surpassing his points per game average from the previous week by eleven points. His team has gone 2-2 during the two-week stretch where Colter has won the award.
When Colter was named A-10 Rookie of the Week for the first time, on December 17th, it was due in large part to his hand in the comeback win against West Virginia. The whole Duquesne team came alive in the second half of that game to complete one of the best comeback wins in program history—but Colter scored 10 of his 12 points in the final half. He would follow this up with a 16 point, six assist performance against RMU.
All of this seemed impressive at the time, but Colter put these numbers to shame the following week with back-to-back 25 point performances. He took a fairly high number of shots in this span—twenty-nine field goal attempts through two games. However, he converted on seventeen of these attempts, shooting 59 percent.
Not bad, for a freshman. Ok, maybe simply labeling him as a freshman is a little condescending. After all, it doesn’t seem like he is too fond of this label. Following his team’s first win of the season against James Madison, a game in which Colter had 12 points and 7 assists, people were impressed by the way him and fellow freshman Quevyn Winters stepped up. When he was questioned by the media after the game about this, he responded with an air of defiance: “Yeah we’re freshmen and all, but we can still make plays.”
Derrick is sure making a lot of plays. He’s had his ups and downs, but he sure is having a heck of a (sorry Derrick) freshman season. He has played hard in every game, giving opposing teams trouble with his quickness and ability to shoot from the outside when given a bit of room. If you go to see Duquesne play this season, you will notice No. 1 right away. The kid absolutely plays his heart out.
Colter has hit double digits in scoring for the past five games. His average of 13.2 points per game now leads the team. He still needs three more outstanding weeks to tie T.J. McConnell’s team record of five A-10 Rookie of the Week awards. But it’s only December—the kid still has a few more months to do it.
I’m not quite sure if I’m kidding with that last sentence or not. I’m sure the reporter from the Trib thought he was kidding after the Western Michigan game when he asked Colter if he planned to win the Rookie of the Week honor every week. Colter downplayed the question.“I’m just working my man, every day I’m just going out, just trying,” he responded coolly. Well I think we know he is trying. What we don’t know is where he will go next, what he will achieve this season for Duquesne. For all we know and hope, he is just getting started.
Photo Credit: Duquesne Athletics
