Carl Nicks (basketball)

Orlando Carl Nicks (born October 6 1958, in Chicago, Illinois) is a retired American American NBA player. At 6'1" 175 lb, Nicks played guard during his career.

Basketball career

Nicks finished with NBA career averages of 6.8ppg, 1.6apg and 0.8spg over those three seasons and currently holds the distinction of being the last Sycamore player drafted.

After being selected out of Indiana State University by the Denver Nuggets with the 23rd overall pick in the 1980 NBA Draft, Nicks played in three seasons with three different teams: Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, and Cleveland Cavaliers. In his freshman season at Indiana State, Nicks only averaged 2.2 points in 24 games. Bob King one of the assistan tcoaches at the time suggested that Nicks leave the sycamores and go to a junior college to refine his skills and work on his game, so that's what Carl did. He spent the 1977-78 season at Gulf County Community College in Panama City, Florida where he averaged 22.4 points a game, though the next season he returned to Indiana State. When he returned he was a more mature and more confident player. It was the 1978-79 season that he started improving and that's where he earned his nicknam; Mr. Intinsity. That year he averaged 19.3 points but it was the 1979 season that he really came out and started scoring he averaged 26.7 points a game. Nicks started with Larry Bird in 1978-79 and helped lead Indiana State to the championship game in the NCAA tournament by averaging 19.3ppg, 5apg, 3.5rpg and 1.8spg on 46% shooting.Nicks was twice named to the All-Missouri Valley Conference first team, in both 1979 and 1980. He was also named to the NCAA All-American team in 1980. In 2007, Nicks was recognized by the Missouri Valley Conference as one of the Missouri Valley Conference's "50 Greatest" Players and was inducted into the Indiana State University Hall of Fame in 2007. After retirement he coached alongside Bill Hodges at Mercer University.

Indiana State statistics

*1976-77: 2.2 ppg
*1978-79: 19.3 ppg
*1979-80: 26.7 ppg
*Total: 16.8 ppg

External links

* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nicksca01.html Career stats] at [http://basketball-reference.com/ basketball-reference.com]