Boise State’s leading scorer Alston joins stacked roster to settle ‘unfinished business’
The Boise State men’s basketball team’s leading scorer will be back on the court in ExtraMile Arena for his senior year.
On Wednesday, Derrick Alston Jr. announced on Twitter that he has withdrawn from the NBA Draft and will return to Boise State to join what looks like a stacked roster for the 2020-21 season.
“Me coming back is a lot bigger than myself now,” he said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. “What I can do for this university and this city from where I started as a walk-on is something you can’t put a price tag on.”
Alston said if he stayed in the draft, he believes he would have been picked somewhere in the second round. But part of what convinced him to return to Boise was what he described as unfinished business.
“How I finished the season last year wasn’t the full testament to my abilities and the things I can do,” he said. “I want to be a first-rounder. That’s my goal and that’s what I told teams, and I think they respected that.”
The coronavirus cost the Broncos a potential berth in the NIT field this winter, and it made the pre-draft process far different than Alston expected. He was in contact with 18 or 19 teams but said he never got the chance to attend an in-person workout. The draft itself was postponed to Oct. 16.
The uncertainty created by the pandemic played a role in his decision to return, he said.
“I would have benefited greatly from having a full process and teams being able to see me in person,” Alston said. “I just felt like at the end of the day, with my story and how I’ve gone through here, the best decision for myself and my career would be to stay for my senior year.”
Alston began his career as a skinny walk-on, averaging just 0.6 points a game as a redshirt freshman. Last season, the Houston native led the team with 17.3 points a game and became the 31st player in program history to score 1,000 career points. But he feels like he still has room to grow.
“I feel like my body still has a big jump it has to make, as well as my mentality,” said Alston, who checks in at 6-foot-9 and 188 pounds. “I feel like I’m still in a growing phase in my career. I might be considered an older guy, but I feel like my basketball age is still very, very young, and I still have a lot to improve on.”
Alston declared for the NBA Draft in late March but retained his NCAA eligibility. In June, he and teammate Justinian Jessup were ranked among ESPN’s top 100 draft prospects.
His points per game ranked No. 4 in the Mountain West last season, and after finishing the year as the Broncos’ second-leading rebounder with 5.2 a night, he was also a finalist for the Julius Irving Small Forward of the Year award.
Alston said he told Boise State coach Leon Rice a couple weeks ago that he was leaning toward returning, and he informed him of his final decision on Tuesday.
“You have a guy that’s right there as a front-runner for Mountain West Player of the Year,” Rice said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “He just impacts the game so many ways with the way he can pass, the way he can shoot and the way he can score, and then we’re going to focus on a lot of the things we know we can make him better at.”
This year, Alston will join a roster bolstered by transfers. Six-foot-6 forward Abu Kigab (Oregon) made his debut last December, while Arizona transfers Emmanuel Akot (6-8) and Devonaire Doutrive (6-5), guard Marcus Shaver Jr. (Portland) and 6-10 forward Mladen Armus (ETSU) all sat out the year due to NCAA transfer rules.
In April, the Broncos also signed junior college transfers Lukas Milner and Naje Smith. Smith is a former Junior College All-American. Both are immediately eligible.
The added length and firepower played a role in Alston’s decision to return, he said.
“We have everything in place to go win a Mountain West championship. Now, we just have to go put in the work and do it,” he said. “I think our team is one of the deepest in the country, for sure. When you have five guys on the court who are a threat, that’s really hard to guard.”
Boise State finished the 2019-20 season with a 20-12 record and made it to the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament. It was the eighth time the Broncos won at least 20 games in the past 10 years.
Alston said not long after he made his announcement official on Wednesday, he saw someone Tweet out that a Mountain West title is now the expectation for the Broncos. He’s OK with that.
“Something like that is not something you take for granted or take lightly,” he said. “I think we all know that we can accomplish great things — things that haven’t been done in Boise State history.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 11:44 AM.
