We’ve all heard that old saying “practice makes perfect” and rolled our eyes in disregard. Practicing 1,000 shots a day would seem excessive to most anyone – anyone except ISU freshman Jake Sullivan, who began shooting 1,000 shots a day as a mere fifth-grader.”Something about basketball is almost like a getaway for me,” Sullivan said. “You know, some people party, and some people go out dancing; but for me, basketball is my getaway – it’s just kinda something I did to relax. Then it got more serious, and the more success I had, the more time I spent on it.”So just how long does it take to shoot 1,000 jump shots? “It takes a good couple of hours, depending on how hard I go,” Sullivan said. “Now, I might not shoot so many shots, but I’ll go a lot harder, and at game speed.”Nonetheless, Sullivan seems to be doing something right as he already holds the ISU record for three-pointers made by a freshman with 37. The young gun from Oakdale, Minn., also seems to be the only one not surprised by his 11.2 ppg and 49 percent (37-76) shooting from three-point land. “Back home, a lot of people told me I wasn’t going to have this kind of success as a freshman, I wasn’t going to do this and that,” Sullivan said. “I think I surprised a lot of people. But I knew I could do what I’m doing, and I knew the coaching staff believed I could do what I’m doing, and that’s a big reason I came here.” Besides Iowa State, Sullivan was also recruited by North Carolina, Utah, UNLV, Minnesota and Duke.Sullivan followed his prolific career at Tartan High School, one that saw him start on varsity and lead his conference in scoring for five straight years. He finished as the state’s second all-time leading scorer with a summer of sensational play that would finally put him on the basketball map. At the prestigious Nike Summer Camp, he put up 20.0 ppg against the nation’s best and immediately became ranked as one of the top 10 players in the nation. “Once I blew up during the summer, had a good Nike Camp and got ranked in the top 10, that’s when all those other schools came calling,” Sullivan said. “But I was set on here, and I really liked my opportunity here, as well as the team and the program.”Sullivan has certainly made the most of his opportunity in Ames; among his early list of accomplishments is a 19-point game against Southern University in The Tribune Cyclone Challenge. That outing against the Jaguars saw Sullivan become the first freshmen to lead Iowa State scoring in a game since Marcus Fizer did it back in the 1997-98 season. The next night, he went out and grabbed a team-high six rebounds and scored 12 points in the championship game against Southern Mississippi. Sullivan’s efforts eventually earned him all-tournament honors.After Brandon Hawkins left the team in early December, the door was open for Sullivan to enter the starting lineup. He did not disappoint as his 11 points against the Bulldogs helped Iowa State cruise to a 75-55 win.However, Sullivan said, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded to crack head coach Larry Eustachy’s starting lineup. “He never guaranteed me anything. He just said I would have the opportunity to start, as opposed to all those other schools that said I would come in and start and do this and that,” Sullivan said. “He just gave me the opportunity, so it meant more to me when I got into the starting lineup here.”Since he became a starter, the ‘Clones have gone 9-2 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12. In his first conference game against Oklahoma, Sullivan notched 17 points on 6-8 shooting, including 3-4 three-pointers. In the marathon four-overtime game at Missouri, Sullivan scored 12 points and played a remarkable 51 minutes. Three days later, he came out and scored 12 points again, this time against Colorado.So what drives a seemingly laid-back player like Jake Sullivan whose pregame superstitions consist of wearing his flannel pants and eating ice cream? “I want to win. Whatever it takes to win is what I want to do, whether it’s me scoring or me taking out the best shooter in the game. My only goal is to win more games than anyone else ever has here. More than [Jeff] Hornacek, more than Gary Thompson, more than any of the other great players who have played here. That’s my number one goal here.”Sullivan should not have any problem achieving his goals if he keeps up his torrid 50 percent (71-140) shooting from the field and nearly perfect 88 percent (22-25) shooting from the free-throw line. Either way, he’ll definitely be a factor in Iowa State’s continued success and hopefully be lucky enough to have more success than his home state Minnesota Vikings, whom Sullivan says, “just can’t win the big one, just can’t get there.”