Former Michigan star 

returns home after 

rookie season

By KELLY HALL

Daily Sports Writer

Judging by the 15 bottles of 

hot sauce lined up on his kitchen 
countertop, Nik Stauskas is either 
a burgeoning chef or an NBA rook-
ie endorsed by Musashi Foods.

After a closed-captioning error 

referred to Stauskas as “Sauce 
Castillo” in March, the Sacramen-
to Kings guard has experienced 
a whirlwind of attention sur-
rounding his infectious nickname. 
There are shirts dedicated to the 
mishap, and he even has his own 
line of Sauce Castillo hot sauce 
through Musashi.

He not only didn’t see the nick-

name coming, but he’s not even a 
fan of legitimate, spicy hot sauce. 
After getting over the initial 
weirdness, though, he was able to 
embrace it.

“I was so confused, I didn’t 

really get it,” Stauskas said. “It 
happened during the game, so 
I didn’t really figure it out until 
afterwards on Twitter because 
everyone was Tweeting at me like, 
‘Good game, Sauce.’

“The first time I heard it, I thought 

it was a little weird. I didn’t love it. 
Once I saw how much everyone else 
liked it though, I was like, ‘You know 
what, I might as well roll with it.’ ”

The moniker followed him every-

where on the road, where fans 
shouted “Sauce” at him rather than 
Nik, and his teammates stopped 
calling him Nik altogether.

With the nickname came more 

confidence.

“It was almost like an alter-ego 

type of thing, which I enjoyed, like 
going on the court and playing as 
someone else and just having fun 
with it.”

Both the nickname and the sauce 

have followed him back to Ann Arbor 
(fans can now buy his mild sauce at 
The M Den and even meet “Sauce 
Castillo” on June 5 from 6-8pm in 
the store), where he’s training with 
Michigan basketball strength and 
conditioning coach Jon Sanderson 
for the summer.

Two years ago, Stauskas spent the 

summer with just Sanderson and 
Caris LeVert. He believes the sum-
mer following his freshman season 
changed his body, and the results 
showed.

His sophomore season, Staus-

kas increased his average points 
per game by six points to become 
Michigan’s leading scorer at 17 
points per game. Expanding his 
role from shooting specialist to 
team leader, Stauskas also sur-
prised many by winning Big Ten 
Player of the Year.

He attributes those gains to 

Sanderson’s emphasis on build-
ing body mass and adding size. 
Sanderson, a former Ohio State 
basketball player, has six years of 
coaching at Michigan under his 

belt, and he believes in the basics 
of weightlifting to get players to 
reach their full potential.

Stauskas decided to return to 

his old stomping grounds when 
Sanderson called him in the 
beginning of March — before the 
Sauce Castillo madness began — 
about training in Ann Arbor for 
the summer.

“Coach Sanderson just called 

me randomly out of nowhere,” 
Stauskas said. “He was just like, 
‘Man, you’ve gotta come back to 
Ann Arbor, we’re going to have 
a big summer and we’re going 
to work really hard.’ The more I 
thought of it, the more it made 
sense to me. Just being back where 
I’m comfortable, working with 
people I know, it just all seemed 
like a pretty good idea.”

He also returned to work with 

Greg Harden, the Director of 
Athletic Counseling at Michigan. 
Harden, who has worked with 
Tom Brady, Desmond Howard and 
Michael Phelps, specializes on the 
mental aspects of the game.

Stauskas values the psychologi-

cal facets of athletics as much as 
the physical, so the joint effort 
made the choice to return to cam-
pus easy.

Along with working with those 

he’s already familiar with, Staus-
kas has also gotten to know the 
younger players on the current 
Michigan squad, and his eyebrows 
raise and eyes widen when talking 
about next season’s potential.

“I’m in the weight room with 

them every day, so it’s just good to 
be around those guys,” Stauskas 
said. “They make me work harder 
and I make them work harder.

“I think next season is going to 

be big, especially if they can get 
everyone back and healthy. It’s 
going to be a tough team to face. 
Now the team has been together 
for a little while, and I think next 
year is going to be a good year.”

After making the jump from 

being 
an 
unheralded 
college 

recruit to a lottery draft pick in 
the NBA, his former teammates 
have bought into the importance 
of summer conditioning.

“It’s crazy to see how far the 

spring and summer sessions have 
come for the Michigan basketball 
team,” Stauskas said. “Two years 
ago, when Caris and I stayed for the 
spring, we were like the only ones 
staying to work out with Sanderson, 
and now, virtually the whole team 
is here working out with Sander-
son every day. Everyone is here and 
wants to put in the work.”

Among those is sophomore Dun-

can Robinson, who will be eligible 
this upcoming season after sitting 
out last season due to NCAA trans-
fer rules. Before even playing one 
official minute for the Wolverines, 
people are already trying to com-
pare him to Stauskas.

The comparisons might not be 

completely unheralded, though.

“(Duncan Robinson) can really 

shoot,” Stauskas said. “We need to 
schedule something. He might even 
beat me — at least that’s what the 

guys have been telling me.”

After taking just two weeks off, 

Stauskas has returned to his roots, 
and he’s not afraid of the competition 
the younger players might bring.

Though Stauskas only averaged 

15.4 minutes per game for the 
Kings, a measly number compared 
to the 35.8 minutes he averaged 
in his final year at Michigan, the 
demanding travel schedule still 
took its toll on the rookie.

But even after he adjusted to the 

professional lifestyle, the higher 
level of competition was unlike 
any physical challenge Stauskas 
had ever faced. He averaged 4.4 
points per game — far from how 
he wanted his rookie season to go.

After being the big man on cam-

pus just a year before and hav-
ing attention from even the most 
casual of Michigan fans, he strug-
gled to get noticed in Sacramento.

“I think the toughest thing for 

me, as far as transition goes, was 
just the physicality of the game,” 
Stauskas said. “Guys are six, 
seven, eight years older than me 
a lot of the time and they’re just 
grown men, they have 10, 15, 20 
pounds on me. Just putting on the 
extra size will help me with a lot 
of confidence and help me battle 
harder out there.”

Whether he makes those gains 

from the extra time he puts in the 
gym or from a “Sauce Castillo”-
heavy diet (he enjoys it with 
grilled chicken the most), he 
hopes an Ann Arbor summer will 
lead him to success once again.

‘Sauce’ comes home

AMANDA ALLEN/Daily

Left: 2014 Big Ten Player of the Year Nik Stauskas was the ninth pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, but averaged just four points per-game. Right: Sauce Castillo has taken both Sacramento adn Ann Arbor by storm, and is 
now available at M-Den and online.

9

Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

