Keeler: Nuggets have eyes on CSU’s Nique Clifford, but Clifford’s got his eyes on carrying Rams back to NCAA Tournament

FORT COLLINS — How amazing would Nique Clifford look in Nuggets blue? Finishing Nikola Jokic lobs. Bending rims. Mocking gravity. Changing shots. Poking loose balls. Smothering smaller guards with that 6-foot-8-ish wingspan.

“I’m going to end up where I’m supposed to be, but it is pretty crazy you said that,” Clifford, CSU’s stellar senior wing guard, told me earlier this week. “I’ve heard it a few times, people wishing I’d be a Nugget. Even my mom wants me to be a Nugget so she can stay home and come see all my games.”

They could use him right now, no questions asked. But first things first: The Rams (22-9, 16-4 conference) need him to keep putting the hottest team in the Mountain West on his back and carry them to the NCAA Tournament.

“I feel like my mindset has been in a good space,” said Clifford, whose Rams open play in the Mountain West tourney at 7 p.m. Thursday in Las Vegas. “I’m really just focused on my team and focused on our season and on winning. And when I’ve been able to do that, we’ve been really successful.”

Really, really, really successful, now that you mention it. Clifford’s Rams are on a serious heater at the right time, riding a seven-game win streak into the conference tourney and elbowing their way onto the Bracketville bubble conversation.

As of Wednesday afternoon, longtime ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had CSU as No. 4 on his list of “First Four Out,” trailing Texas (17-14 as of Wednesday mid-day), North Carolina (21-12) and Boise State (22-9) — a Boise team CSU swept during the regular season.

“There’s metrics, but there’s still humans that make these decisions,” CSU coach Niko Medved said of crunch to squeeze into the field as an at-large. “Is there a Power 4 bias? Because they’re human, not because they want the best team on there or whatever? I think so.

“It’s just like — does LeBron James get more foul calls? Probably. It’s human nature. But I’m sure that there is a bias in there of the people who are deciding that (bracket). That’s life … again, I don’t know why the rhyme or reason behind some of it. But we just have to win. If you just win, then you don’t have to worry about it.”

If the selection committee was as smart as their suits, they’d focus less on CSU’s 1-5 record in “Quad 1” games as of Wednesday and more on the sheer power — star power, drawing power — that Clifford brings to the party.

The Colorado Springs native and former CU Buff, who was just named to the Mountain West’s first team and its all-defensive team, is averaging 25.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game this month, while draining 10 of his last 15 3-pointers. The Rams go as Nique goes, and his stunning 36-point performance at Boise hoisted CSU to a 10-point victory against a fellow NCAA bubble hopeful on March 7.

“It’s not just coaches telling me, ‘Go take over,'” Clifford explained. “It’s (more that) I have a good feel for the game. I knew like, if I have it going, maybe I need to be more aggressive. Or if the other team is pressuring me a lot, I might need to make more plays for my teammates.”

The 6-foot-6, 200-pound Clifford, who raised eyebrows with a 37-inch vertical at the NBA Draft Combine last year, hasn’t pushed many wrong buttons since May, when he elected to return for a fifth collegiate season.

“It was a tough decision,” Clifford recalled. “It was probably, in my mind, like a 70-30 (lean toward) leaving rather than staying. I wanted to leave. But after hearing all the feedback, then I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to come back.'”

At this time a year ago, NBA draft projections were all over the map. Some teams told him he was a cinch to go late in the first round or early in the second. Others pegged him to be left out entirely.

Rather than roll the dice, Clifford returned to CSU to focus on ball-handling, shooting and getting stronger. A postseason workout with pros such as the Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. in southern California last year opened his eyes. Nuggets scouts have been to more than a few Rams games this season, home and away.

“It’s worked out and it’s been awesome.,'” Clifford said. “I’m so glad I came back. Even if I didn’t improve my stock, honestly, just being with this group of guys, being in Moby (Arena) all the time, (there’s) just so much love around here, I love it. FoCo is a great place.”

So is Ball Arena, my friend. You’ll fit right in.

“I’m not looking forward into the future,” Clifford stressed. Then he grinned. “Because I know if I take care of business now, all that will handle itself in the end.”

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