Ace Bailey Named Big Ten’s Freshman of the Week for 2nd Time

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Ace Bailey has been named the Big Ten Conference’s Freshman of the Week for the second time this season.
 
Bailey previously won the award after scoring a career-high 39 points at Indiana during the first week of January. This marks the fifth time a Scarlet Knight has been named to the award this season. Fellow freshman Dylan Harper was named to the award the previous three times. Bailey joins Harper, Ron Harper Jr., Geo Baker and Corey Sanders as the only players to win the award.
 
The Scarlet Knights went 2-0 last week with victories over UCLA at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Monday and a win on the road against Nebraska on Thursday. Bailey led the charge scoring in both games with two double-doubles.
 
Bailey led the team with 20 points and 10 rebounds in the 75-68 win over UCLA. It marked his team-high fifth double-double this season, his seventh 20+ point game, his fifth 10+ rebounding game, his sixth time leading the team in scoring, and 10th time leading the team in rebounding. Bailey was just the third Division I player this season to have a game with at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and one steal.
 
Bailey scored 24 points and had 11 rebounds, four assists, three blocks, and one steal in the victory over Nebraska on the road on Thursday night. It was the first win at Pinnacle Bank Arena by a road opponent in 20 games in Lincoln.
 
Bailey was the first freshman to reach that stat line since 2021 (Duke’s Jalen Johnson).
A stat line of that caliber had been done only eight times previously since 2005, and only once by a Big Ten player (Ohio State’s Greg Oden vs. Tennessee). It had not been done in a Big Ten game in past 20 seasons Of the eight players to reach that stat line, 7 of the 8 played multiple seasons in the NBA (Greg Oden, Zion Williamson, DeAndrew Ayton, Ben Simmons, Michael Beasley, Jalen Johnson, Talen Horton-Tucker). Six of those NBA players were first-round draft picks and four were first overall picks (Oden, Williamson, Ayton, Simmons). The additional draft picks were selected second (Michael Beasley) and 20th (Jalen Johnson).