Making the jump from high school to college basketball has its challenges.
For Cochrane’s Chace Nielson, the challenge is in impressing head coach Craig Price enough to grant him more game minutes.
The 2013 Cochrane High School grad and ex-Cobras basketball player is, like fellow Cochrane High alumnus Kristen McNab, in his rookie season with the Medicine Hat College Rattlers.
Feasting on major minutes as a high-school senior last season, Nielson now averages nine minutes per contest as an Alberta Colleges Athletic Association (ACAC) freshman. Adjusting to the schemes and pace of men’s college basketball takes time.
“I think he played pretty decently tonight,” said Rattlers men’s head coach Craig Price following his team’s 77-71 loss to the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans in Calgary Jan. 24. “I still think he’s trying to find his way. He’s only getting 8-12 minutes a game. I think, in some ways, that’s hurt his confidence a little.
“It’s been a slow adjustment for him. I think coming from 3A (high school), that’s not a huge surprise. But he’s a good kid. He’s starting to get it. He’s starting to be more and more comfortable. I think he’s starting to get there.”
For his part, Nielson is making the most of his limited floor time, averaging just over three points a game in 13 contests and shooting more than 50 per cent (9-17) from three-point land.
“It’s a big jump up from high school,” observed Nielson. “The guys are more physical. They’re more intense, they come hard at you and they’re more skilled, too.”
The 6-foot-3 shooting forward went scoreless on 0-2 shooting from the field and 0-1 from beyond the arc in 9:28 of play Jan. 24 at SAIT. He followed that pallid showing with a lights-out performance Jan. 25 against the Trojans in Medicine Hat, doubling his playing time from the night before and hitting 7-12 from the field including five treys while grabbing a couple of offensive and defensive boards in his team’s 83-74 triumph.
“The plays they run are similar (to high school),” Nielson said of ACAC ball. “They just run them better. Everyone’s more fluid in what they do. They play together more. They step up. They know how to run the plays.”
And it’s early days for Nielson in his ACAC freshman year. He’s catching up already.
“He’s done a great job the last month of getting six or seven rebounds a game in those limited minutes,” said Price. “If anything, he has a case to say he should play more.”
