Each week during the University of Kansas’ sports seasons, the Journal-World staff will select one athlete from a KU men’s sports team and one from a women’s sports team as athletes of the week.
For the week of Dec. 1-7, the selections are Tre White and S’Mya Nichols.
Tre White, men’s basketball
The senior transfer from Illinois was the best player on the floor in KU’s 80-60 rivalry win over Missouri at the T-Mobile Center on Sunday as he tallied a 20-point, 13-rebound double-double. White scored from the outside and continued to draw fouls at a high rate, and his effectiveness did not decrease with the return of Darryn Peterson. His transition 3 at the halftime buzzer was one of the biggest plays of the game for the Jayhawks.
S’Mya Nichols, women’s basketball
Nichols has been a member of the Big 12’s weekly Starting Five for each of the past two weeks, and her scoring average continues to hover around 20 points per game. This past week, she led the Jayhawks to a pair of come-from-behind road wins at Northwestern and Missouri State. In the 73-70 overtime victory over the Lady Bears, she recorded 24 points despite shooting just 5-for-18 from the field and added seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.
