Nick Mantis
For Nick Mantis, the 2016-17-basketball season has encountered plenty of optimism and success. He recently scored his 1000th career point and had a career high of 42 points in one game. More importantly, Nick has been instrumental in the team’s overall success and 11-2 record. Through 13 games, Nick has put up impressive numbers on the court. He is averaging 24 PPG, 5 APG, 5 RPG, 3 SPG. Not only that, Nick is knocking it out in the classroom with a 3.5 GPA.
We were impressed with Nick at the 2nd Annual Indy Top 80 camp and his evaluation dovetails nicely with this current season. In our Indy Top 80 report, we stated, “Nick is very tough. He plays a very physical game and loves doing all the tough guy stuff on the perimeter. Nick plays the game the right way. He is a good defender and unselfish ball handler. Nick has a consistent stroke and ends up as a sneaky all around scorer.”
Last season, Nick made First Team All-Area, First Team All-Conference (for the second time), Honorable Mention All-State and other honors during the course of the season. He has a high skill set and tremendous touch and range from the 3-point line. Nick has a high skill level with a nice blend of athleticism and it’s easy to see why he was invited to the Indiana Top 100 workout and even asked to play on the Greek National Team.
More importantly, we have been impressed with his overall work ethic and winning attitude. He is a tough, gritty competitor that gives maximum effort every game. Coach Joe Delgado stated, “Nick is a competitor that can rise to the occasion and is still the ultimate team player. Nick has can shoot well from the outside (40% 3P%), but he can also get to the basket (57% FG, 80% FT). Nick also has tremendous jumping ability and athleticism. He has strong athletic genes, (His grandfather was captain at Northwestern and played in the NBA, his father played DI at Northeastern Illinois, and his mother is a Hammond Hall of Fame athlete after playing volleyball at Purdue University- Calumet.”
Last year this time, we were singing the praises of Desmond Bane. He came into the Indy Top 80 event with zero D1 offers. After an outstanding senior season, Bane signed with TCU and is having an outstanding freshman season. Nick Mantis is going to be an absolute steal for a D1 school. It’s time schools that value a player like Nick. He has all the attributes and intangibles to definitely play at that level.