Player of the Week: Garrett Franken
Since our site’s inception in 2014 Garrett Franken has been one of the more discussed players in Iowa.
A 6-foot-7 wing who is capable of handling the ball, passes well and shoots it, we weren’t surprised last summer when he picked up a Division I offer from North Dakota.
After committing and signing with the Fighting Hawks earlier this fall, Franken went into his senior season with his full focus on his senior campaign.
And he erupted during the first week of the season. .
In the Trojans’ season-opening win over Winterset, Franken went off for 42 points while connecting on six of nine 3s. He followed that with a 22 point, 9 rebound, 7 assist performance in another win over At. Albert, with 3 steals and 2 blocks to boot.
“Going into the first game we kind of wanted to set a bar of how hard we wanted to play this year, and coming in I kind of wanted to make a statement the first night out,” Franken said. “And I think me personally, and my team both made that statement, so it was a good first night.”
Franken said the second game was more of a glimpse into what his role may be with the Trojans this season: a do-it-all wing.
“I’ll definitely have to hit the boards and dish it out too because a lot of teams are going to be keying on me,” said Franken. “It was kind of a different role for me offensively [against St. Albert], but I was able to dish out to my teammates so they could get easy buckets.”
This isn’t the first time the city of Atlantic has voted in droves for one of its own. Last season, current Wayne State wing and former Trojan, Ryan Hawkins, was a Player of the Week runaway — and it was the second time he won the award.
Each of the three times an Atlantic player has been nominated in our Player of the Week, they’ve won.
“Our principal sent out an email with the link on it, and all of our coaches were telling their kids to go and vote. And I have a lot of family and it got out to all of them and they were posting it on different stuff,” Franken said.
“Everyone is behind me and everyone is behind Atlantic, and it’s kind of cool to see all of the votes come in.”
Week 1 Total Tally
Garrett Franken — 4,544
Lim Chuol — 3,068
Ray Miller — 1,340
Ryan VanWyk — 118
Connor Kasperbauer — 72
Jay Small — 46