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Grafel becoming a threat for NIU
This isn’t Kansas anymore.
This is a fact senior forward Egan Grafel, a native of Oberlin, Kan., found out last year when he transferred from the junior college ranks into Division I.
But a tireless work ethic and an early-season sit-down with NIU men’s basketball coach Ricardo Patton helped put Grafel on the right path.
“He’s a guy that started out pretty slowly,” Patton said of Grafel. “We actually had a conversation early in the year about how I thought he was very talented but didn’t play hard enough for his talents to surface. He didn’t play a lot in the first few exhibition games, but because of his character, he really dug down deep and has become one of our main go-to guys.”
Grafel has taken Patton’s advice and adjusted his game accordingly. Grafel leads NIU in shooting at 54 percent from the field, and rebounding at 5.3 per game. He is fourth in scoring at 8.7 points per game.
“That kept me in my place and really put my long-term goals into perspective,” Grafel said of the meeting with Patton.
Last year, Grafel played eight minutes a game and scored 1.8 points per game. This year, the Cloud Community College product raised his game to a level that makes him an indispensable component in the NIU rotation, evidenced by the coaching staff’s player rating.
“Egan has been the most consistent player on our team,” Patton said. “We do an evaluation – an efficiency rating on all the players – we take their stat line and see who is most efficient in the minutes they are playing. And Egan has rated out as being the most efficient player we have.”
For Grafel, the reason for success on the court this year is twofold. He is adjusted to the speed of Division I basketball and life in a town that is far from home.
And, just like every other senior student athlete, he feels the eligibility clock ticking.
Even though NIU owns a 0-6 record headed into Saturday’s 1 p.m. game with Lamar at the Convocation Center, Grafel said that with Patton’s focus on fundamental improvement, he can feel the Huskies on the right track.
“You’ve got to build a base first of all,” Grafel said. “The little things like passing, cutting and receiving the ball; they’ve all got to be there before we can get better. That is what coach expected us to have, and he’s trying to reinstall them into our games.”
Being a senior has slowed the game for Grafel, as the various plays and assignments aren’t busy thoughts rushing around in his head as he competes. He admits to being a smarter basketball player this year through being more focused and having fun.
Both Grafel and senior forward Shaun Logan transferred to NIU after two years of junior college, and arrived on campus at the same time.
The duo endured a 7-23 campaign last year and formed a bond their first summer in DeKalb.
“Egan is a great guy,” Logan said. “I think it is because we both came in from junior college; we hung out and lived together that first summer here. It is like we’ve known each other four years.”
The goals for a winless team are short-sighted for Grafel. As NIU works at practice on its cuts without the basketball, spacing the floor in transition and pushing the ball up the court after a basket, there is a long-term goal that is buried deep in the mind of Grafel.
“Every day we want to get better. We are 0-6 but want to be better every day and play our best basketball by March,” Grafel said “When coach sat me down he said, ‘Keep up the good work, but you are now on teams scouting reports,’ so I know I’ve got to keep my game going.”
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