AP College Basketball Players of the Week: Duke’s Boozer, Texas’ Booker

The Associated Press has announced its men’s and women’s basketball national players of the week for Week 18 of the season. On the men’s basketball side: Cameron Boozer, Duke No. 1. The 6-foot-9 freshman became the second player to earn AP National Player of the Week honors twice this season after helping the top-ranked Blue Devils close out the ACC regular-season crown last week. Boozer started with 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting with nine rebounds and six assists in a rout of NC State, then had 26 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a win over North Carolina. Boozer, expected to be a top-three pick in the upcoming NBA draft, was also the national player of the week on Dec. 9, joining Arizona’s Brayden Burries as the only two-time winner this season. Boozer has also been a finalist for this award twice and received honorable mention two other weeks. Runner-up Camren Hunter, Central Arkansas. The 6-3 senior averaged 34.3 points in three games over three days at the Atlantic Sun tournament last week. He started with 31 points in a win over Bellarmine, then had 23 points and eight rebounds a day later in a win over Florida Gulf Coast. He closed with eight 3-pointers and 49 points in a 98-93 loss to Queens in the championship game. [2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament Projections: Can Indiana Give the Big Ten 10 Bids?] Honorable Mention Hannes Steinbach, Washington; Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt; Kanon Catchings, Georgia. Keep an eye out for Jaiden Glover-Toscano, St. Joseph’s. The sophomore had 23 points and nine rebounds in a win over Davidson, then 15 points and five rebounds in a win over La Salle. This allowed St. Joseph’s to become the third seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament this week. And on the women’s side: Madison Booker, Texas The junior wing led No. 3 Texas to its first Southeastern Conference tournament championship. In the title game win over South Carolina, Booker had 18 points, going 8 of 15 from the field. She added four rebounds and two assists. She averaged 19.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists in the tournament. Runner-up Jordan Harrison, No. 12 West Virginia. She led the Mountaineers to the Big 12 Tournament championship, earning Most Outstanding Player honors. Harrison had 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in the title win over TCU. Harrison averaged 15.3 points, 3.3 steals and 3.3 assists in the tournament while making all 14 of his foul shots. Honorable mention Hannah Hidalgo, No. 22 Notre Dame; Tania Mair, Duke No. 8; Kiki Rice, No. 2 UCLA; Sarah Strong, No. 1 UConn. [Last Night in College Basketball: Fairfield beats Quinnipiac in MAAC Final] Keep an eye on Fairfield junior guard Jillian Huerter, averaging 12.7 points, 3.7 3-pointers and 2.3 rebounds, helping the Stags win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for the third straight year. She was named tournament MVP. The Associated Press contributed to this report.