Nijel Pack makes compelling case for Kansas State’s best freshman of Bruce Weber era
Ever since he arrived on campus, Kansas State freshman Nijel Pack has been compared to Barry Brown and Kamau Stokes.
All three guards started immediately for rebuilding teams, and all three quickly showed promise as scorers, facilitators and locker-room leaders. Can he follow in their footsteps and eventually guide the Wildcats back to the NCAA Tournament? That’s a popular question in Manhattan these days.
Here’s another: Have we been comparing him to the wrong former K-State men’s basketball players?
Pack is putting up better numbers than Brown and Stokes did as sophomores, let alone as freshmen. Perhaps it would make more sense to start comparing him to Marcus Foster, who set the gold standard for freshman production by averaging a whopping 15.5 points during his first season under Bruce Weber before finishing his college career at Creighton.
Both players led their respective teams in scoring.
Foster averaged 15.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists and made 39.5% of his three-pointers while playing 29.4 minutes and making 33 starts during the 2013-14 season.
Pack is averaging 12.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists. He is also making 41.4% of his three-pointers while playing 32.7 minutes over the course of 17 starts.
If you care most about scoring, Foster has a noticeable lead in that department. But an argument could be made that Pack is the more complete freshman. And he is undoubtedly more mature.
In any case, both players are well ahead of where Brown (8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists) and Stokes (9.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists) were as freshmen, in addition to former big man Dean Wade (9.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists).
“He’s doing what I thought he would do. I thought he was this good,” Weber said. “If you watched him in high school and AAU or whatever it was, he was pretty elite. It’s not always transferable from high school to college, but he did some special things, especially when you go back to the EYBL, where you’re playing against a lot of the guys we’re playing against now. He was special.”
The former four-star recruit from Indianapolis has given K-State fans something to feel optimistic about in an otherwise dismal season. Weber shudders to think about where the Wildcats would be without him.
Pack has been at his best lately. He has reached double figures in seven straight games, he broke a freshman record previously held by Foster when he made eight three-pointers against Texas A&M and he scored 22 points in his last outing against Texas.
Only two freshmen in the Big 12 have been more productive this season — Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham (18.7 points) and TCU guard Mike Miles (14.6 points).
“Nijel is a special talent in this whole country,” senior K-State guard Mike McGuirl said. “We are lucky to have him.”
So much so, that Weber is beginning to force feed Pack on the offensive end. It’s obvious he is already the best player on the team, and Weber wants him attempting at least 10 shots in every game.
Weber didn’t ask that sort of thing from Brown or Stokes until they were older.
This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Nijel Pack makes compelling case for Kansas State’s best freshman of Bruce Weber era."