Former Drake men’s basketball player C.J. Rivers has been added to the Colorado State men’s basketball staff as a graduate assistant manager, head coach Niko Medved announced.
“I feel very fortunate to add CJ to our staff,” Medved said. “CJ is the entire package. He was a terrific team player for us at Drake as well as a terrific student and high character young man. He will add a lot to our great staff.”
Rivers played at Drake University from 2014-18 playing for the current CSU coaching staff in his final season. In Rivers’ senior year under Medved and company, he helped lead Drake to a .500 overall record and 10 conference wins, the most for the program in 10 years, and a surprise third-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference. Rivers started all 34 games his senior season. averaging 5.5 points and team highs of 5.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per contest. He shot a team-best 53.6 percent from the field and tallied double digits on seven occasions, including scoring season-high 12 points each in home victories over Omaha and Northern Iowa.
“A big part of me coming was these guys coaching me my senior year at Drake, and I built a pretty good relationship with all of them,” Rivers said. “Niko gave me the opportunity to be a part of it in a grad assistant role, and I thought the opportunity was one that I just couldn’t pass up. So, I’m happy to be here.”
For his collegiate career, he played in 111 games, starting in 72 of them and averaging 4.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Rivers led the Bulldogs in rebounds, assists and steals each more than 20 times in his career. He was also a standout in the classroom, as he was named a Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete during his career. He graduated in 2018 with a degree in broadcast news. Prior to Drake, Rivers led Cahokia (Ill.) High School to the Class 3A Super Sectional his senior year, earning Illinois Class 3A honorable mention all-state, after pacing the squad to the state championships as a junior with a 33-4 record.
https://csurams.com/news/2019/9/24/rivers-added-to-mens-basketball-staff.aspx
