Beauty Lies Behind the Numbers
Lake’s game shines for Rams in the details
Mike Brohard
The first thing Nique Clifford noticed was he was a quiet kid. A bit reserved.
Everyone always notices those traits. In four years, Niko Medved said it has never changed. Eventually, what everybody comes to note most about Jalen Lake is he is Colorado State men’s basketball’s version of the convenience stores the team hits after road games.
Always present. Offers a bit of everything. Dependable.
“Lake is a guy who brings a lot to our team on an everyday basis. He comes to practice, he brings energy,” Clifford said with the season’s start just around the corner. “He’s the same guy every day. He’s a pretty quiet, reserved dude, but he does his job at a high level. He plays really great defense for us, knocks down shots and just plays hard.”
Each and every season has brought a little something new to the program since Lake’s arrival four seasons ago. The Rams have ridden experience at times, altered looks with the addition of transfers. Even during seasons. In the last campaign, the Rams started as one of the better offensive teams in the country, but by the time the NCAA Tournament rolled around, defense was their strength.
It can often give Medved, entering his seventh season, plenty to think about before heading to practice daily. What he never questions is Lake.
“As a coach, you value consistency in approach. I’m about ready to go to practice and I know exactly what I’m going to get from Jalen Lake today,” Medved said without hesitation last week. “I’m not wondering what kind of mood he’s going to be in, is he going to be locked into what we want, is he going to be focused on what we’re doing. I don’t have to worry about that. That’s one of the biggest reasons he’s so valuable is I don’t go in every day wondering what we’re going to get out of Jalen Lake.”
The answer is everything on both ends of the floor. The beauty of his game is not found within his numbers, but in the details. Stats only tell part of his story, and really, his best attributes can’t be found on the sheet.
You don’t see the defensive intensity. The numbers won’t tell you he is always asked to take on the opposition’s best scoring perimeter threat. Or that he clogs defensive lanes and gets deflections, or simply takes passing lanes away.
They don’t give a glimpse into the detail for which he plays off the ball. There is no stat line for being unwavering in times of need.
“I feel like I would agree with that. I feel like my game can be hidden sometimes,” Lake said. “Every game, guarding the best players is a challenge, guarding guys through different actions and going through ball screens and stuff like that, but that’s my game. I agree.
“I always want to do anything to impact winning, whatever the coaches want from me. They have the belief in my game. I feel whatever I can do to be on the floor as much as I can to help my team win, that’s what it comes down to. Of course I want to be more consistent in my numbers, but as long as I’m impacting winning, I’m grateful to be on the floor and helping my team win.”
That’s one of the biggest reasons he’s so valuable is I don’t go in every day wondering what we’re going to get out of Jalen Lake.Niko Medved
He has always known the best way to get to the floor was to play defense. He was stellar in high school, but soon found out he was only scratching he surface. In college, he was exposed to additional layers.
Not just help defense but playing off the ball. It can be complex at times, especially for a freshman. Well, most freshmen.
“I think that’s the hardest thing to learn on the defensive end is off the ball. In college, you’re guarding multiple actions,” Medved said. “You’re always in the play off the ball. For him, he picked it up quicker than most. He was able to adjust and figured out what that looked like for him. Again, being in the right position off the ball is harder than it looks. If you’re in the right position, it gives you the ability to anticipate what’s happening next.
“On defense, you have to anticipate, not react. The guys who are always reacting are the guys behind the play. When you can anticipate, that’s when you can be effective.”
Lake is very effective, but no one is perfect. And when he’s not, he’s going to hear about it from the coaches. Even the one back home.
“Defense is big in college. My mom played in college, and she was on me every single game about this is what it’s going to be,” Lake said. “Sometimes I may have brushed it off, but it was real, what she taught me. The pace, every possession matters.
“She’ll always make a comment after the game, definitely. She’s always on me. She knows the game really well, so she sees everything and doesn’t let anything go by. She’s helped me so much.”
By the time he hits the locker room after a game, he knows what awaits him when he picks up the phone. It will be a text from his mom, Julie. She watches everything, but the former Texas Tech player is particularly particular about the defensive end.
It may be one text. It could be a few. But they are coming, even though she knows the staff has already pointed it out.
“I watch both ends of the floor, but I notice everything. I like movement. I played basketball, so I know what spots he should be in and when and where he’s dropping,” Julie said. “Yeah, I’m pretty hard on making sure he’s in every spot, his intensity is there, and his hands and feet are moving. That’s what I’m watching on TV.
“You still have to say it. He gets it. I realize he has his coaches. We’re a basketball family. My dad is there, and my sister played. I have to have a balance, but I have to let him know this is what I see. You have to put your two cents in.”
What he does defensively earns him major respect from his teammates.
It’s not just the tough assignments he takes on, but the way he does. Could be a guard, could be a win. Someone with a feathery outside touch or somebody who aggressively pursues the rim. Basically, anything but a big, physical post could be on the table for Jalen.
“It’s not easy. I mean, you’re going against some tough matchups, and sometimes they’ll get the best of you,” Clifford said. “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. Him 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.”
The truth from Medved’s perspective is Julie’s son gives him everything, starting with trust my making a commitment to a program during a global pandemic without an official visit.
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.
He did all of that, coming off the bench, then missed the next month. It’s one of his best memories of college, not because he played well, but because he felt free knowing what came next. It didn’t hurt that the atmosphere of a sold-out Moby Arena was electric.
He just played his game, which is all he’s ever wanted to do.
“I don’t think of it as I want to start. I put in a lot of work, and I want the trust in that work I put in during the offseason, and whatever the coaches feel like when I show up in practice each day, that’s what matters to me most,” he said. “I want to win at the highest level. I don’t think about starting or what position I’m in, coming off the bench, I want to come in and impact as much as I can.
“It can be a mental battle. Coming into college, I’ve gone through a lot of mental battles. It’s amazing how mental the game is, and I’ve worked so much on my mental toughness in the offseason. You trust the process and stay faithful to the work I put in.”
Trust is earned, and Jalen has Medved’s, fully. It happened pretty quickly and strengthened over time. Through every consistent effort at practice. By sticking to the details when a game hits crunch time.
Because he’s always there, regardless of the ask. Just like pulling into the mini mart near midnight in Fresno, Calif., hot off a road win and on the way to the airport. Sometimes you have to go with a craving, whatever hits in the moment. Other times, you stick with the tried and true, the snack which has never let you down.
For a basketball coach, consistent delivery never has an expiration date. When Oct. 30 rolls around for the season opener with Adams State, with 10 fresh players on the roster, there will be a lot of questions Medved will have circulating in his head in the lead up to the game.
Not a single one will concern Jalen Lake.
Support Colorado State Athletics: Tickets | Ram Club | Green And Gold Guard