It is Nique Clifford (before transfering to Colorado St).
I've assembled a team of practice squad level freshmen and disappointing transfers who played for Niko at some point in their careers, to pit against 60's Guy's all star team of his choice.
CSU Freshman PG Kyan Evans - 8 mpg, 1.7 pts
CU Freshman Nique Clifford - 4 mpg, 1.0 pt
CSU Freshman John Tonje - 8 mpg, 3.6 pts
Junior Cade Tyson - 7.9 mpg, 2.6 pts
CSU Freshman Kyle Jorgensen - 13 mpg, 4 pts, 42.5% shooting
6th man: CSU freshman Jalen Lake - 13.9 mpg, 3.6 pts, 37% shooting
Okay I'm cheating a bit because Tonje didn't become an all first team B10 player until he transferred to Wisconsin. And Jorgensen broke out this season for coach Ali Farokhmanesh this year as a sophomore (25.5 mpg, 11.5 pts, 52% FG and 40% 3PT). But I want to focus on Lake and draw a comparison to Shinholster.
Jalen Lake is a good case study for looking at how roles can evolve under Niko, and how he values an energy/defensive guy. He actually started 21/26 games as a sophomore, and then as a junior came off the bench the entire season and played fewer minutes. 9/10 guys transfer in that situation. He came back for his senior year and played the 2nd most minutes on the team and averaged 11.3 points on their NCAA tourney team. From a story before his senior year:
“Last year Lake did a really good job on the dudes he guarded. Defense is a big key to our success. Our offense will be what it is, and it will go. We’re not worried about finding our offense, but defense is going to win us games. [Jalen Lake] being a defensive stopper like that, it just brings energy to our team and also makes everybody else on our team want to play defense. [quote from Clifford]
Roles are critical to Medved. Every player on the roster has one, but he said success only comes once the players buy in and embrace them. Roles can change through play. They can be altered by circumstance and matchups.
Jalen has always known his and played it to his strengths.
“Last year, I asked him to come off the bench for us. That doesn’t mean he didn’t earn a start to spot. It wasn’t that at all, but I asked him to do that because I thought he had the maturity to handle it and understood in this case it could be great for the team,” Medved said. “It’s one thing to know that, but to embrace it the way he did … What fans don’t understand is you can’t have a successful season I you don’t get players to buy into those kinds of things. It’s not something people notice on the outside or it doesn’t show up on the stats, but every successful team I’ve been around, it took players sacrificing something individually for the betterment of the team. When they do that willingly, that’s when the team can have success. That was huge for us last season.”
Jalen was a key reserve as a freshman and a junior. He’ll be a starter this year, which he was most of his sophomore year with 21 in 26 games. He can score a bit, and he’ll be expected to do that a little more this season. He can find an open teammate, but also help to get them open. He’ll block out a bigger body for a rebound.
No matter how he’s feeling, he’s going to bring all he has. Even if that means doing it with two fingers taped together and facing surgery to repair one of them the following day.
The scenario played out against Colorado last year. He was given the opportunity to play or not, which for him, was not much of a question. He turned in one of his best performances, starting with his pesky defense and adding 16 points as he hit a trio of 3s.
Who knows how Shinholster will develop, but I'm glad he is sticking around and who knows he could be a pivotal part of the team come his junior or senior year.
