It's Monday, which means that it's the day I get an e-mail from the folks at the Pac-10 offices in Walnut Creek that divulges the information regarding Pac-10 Player of the Week. Usually that message garners a few seconds of my time, but not today, as Oregon State's Roeland Schaftenaar has been named Pac-10 player of the week.
The spiffy, Pac-10 PDF release can be found here.
It wasn't hard to see this one coming after the Beavers pulled a sweep of the Bay Area teams last week.... it was just a matter of time.
You see, a Beaver hasn't been Player of the Week since Chris Stephens won the honor in December of 2005.
But the Beavers hadn't swept the Bay Area schools since 1993.... we could go on and on with the mind-boggling "they haven't done that since..." statistics all day.
Regardless, Roeland Schaftenaar is the Pac-10 player of the week, and rightfully so. Under head coach Craig Robinson, Roeland has become what the hybrid golf club became in everyone's golf bag: that weird, out of place iron that looks like a wood but is really an iron... and works really well. Roeland is single-handedly coining a new position... point-center... which may have already existed, but if it did, I didn't know about it.
Roeland had 22 points against Cal, and 18 against Stanford, as well as 10 combined assists in those two games. His season average is under nine per game, but the kid is tearing it up as of late. Kinda like Greg Oden, but that's a different story.... and the reason there's a blog like Blazers Edge out there.
The stats speak for themselves, but it makes it even better when you watch this guy basically run the offense. He doesn't often set screens on the low block, or back people down, Schaftenaar is making backdoor passes at the top of the key all with feeding cutters, all with accuracy. Which is good, because something tells me he couldn't survive in the low post with other Pac-10 big men.
And the turn around jump-hooks? And the runners that bank in off the glass? Priceless, my friend.
Congratulations, Roeland. The honor is well-deserved.
I'm sure other fans will agree as well. (That's your cue...)
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)
Remember: Oregon State plays Cal State Bakersfield at 7:00 PM tonight. It won't be on TV (860 AM or www.kpam.com). Stop by BtD during the game to show the team some love.