In January, Nando De Colo authored another amazing month in what is becoming one of the finest careers of any player in the history of the EuroLeague. With De Colo setting the pace, CSKA extended its lead atop the regular season standings to two victories while winning four games in a row and showing off its league-leading offense by breaking the 100-point barrier twice. As the go-to player for CSKA throughout that surge, De Colo is Euroleague Basketball’s choice as the MVP for January. The fabulous Frenchman averaged 18.4 points on 11 of 18 three-point shooting (61.1%) and was perfect on 25 free throw attempts in January. He added 3.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals for an average performance index rating of 22.8, the highest among EuroLeague players during the month.
De Colo, a former EuroLeague MVP, Final Four MVP and three-time All-EuroLeague selection, joins the select company with the third MVP of the Month award of his career. Only Juan Carlos Navarro, Vassilis Spanoulis and Ante Tomic can match that number.
The MVP of the Month honor is now in its 14th season. Although statistics and performance index ratings are taken into consideration for the award, they alone do not determine who is honored. The winner is named by Euroleague Basketball based on his and his team’s performance. The award for January spanned the five regular season games that all teams played between Rounds 16 and 20.
