Haliburton invited to Nike Skills Academy
August 6, 2019
Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton added another off-season accolade after being invited to the Nike Skills Academy.
Along winning a gold medal with the U.S. and being named to the All-Star Five at the FIBA U19 World Cup this summer, Haliburton will travel to Thousand Oaks, Calif. to participate in the three day event, which has had other past Cyclone invitees.
The camp runs Wednesday to Friday and features NBA All-Stars and Hall-of-Fame players as speakers, coaches and drill partners.
Hall of Fame point guard Gary Payton has been a coach and LeBron James has spoken and participated in drills in past camps. Current NBA players, such as Anthony Davis, Devin Booker and newly-drafted players will come to the camp to participate in drills and scrimmages.
Haliburton isn’t the first Cyclone to earn an invite, as Georges Niang and Monte Morris have participated at the camp during their time at Iowa State.
Niang was a second-team All-American his senior year in 2016 and Morris, a point guard, was named to the Big 12 first team as a senior in 2017 when he broke the NCAA assist-to-turnover ratio with a ratio of 5.21. The previous record was 4.79, which he set as a freshman.
At the World Cup, Haliburton led the tournament in assists per game and also had the highest assist-to-turnover ratio, which was 6.0.
Both Haliburton and Morris have similar stats during their freshman season, with Morris averaging 6.8 points, 3.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds, and Haliburton averaging 6.8 points, 3.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds.
Despite the close averages, Haliburton was the more efficient scorer and shot 51.5% from the floor (43.3% from three) while Morris shot 43% from the floor (40.6% from three).
Both Morris and Haliburton had similar freshman seasons with both players playing behind or with ball-dominant players, which required them to operate as secondary facilitators much of the time.
Morris was the primary backup for DeAndre Kane and Haliburton shared a starting lineup with Nick Weiler-Babb, Marial Shayok and Talen Horton-Tucker.
By the time Morris was a senior, he was averaging 16.4 points, 6.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds.
If Haliburton can replicate the growth Morris experienced after his freshman year, he will establish himself as not only one of the best guards in the Big 12, but in the nation.