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

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