NCAA Basketball: In-depth look at Middle Tennessee star guard Elias King

Why you should know Elias King

The senior guard enters this season with the Blue Raiders with his highest expectations ever. He had his best season in college a season ago and he is ready to build from it. King started his career at Mississippi State and he only played in six games as a member of the Bulldogs. That led the guard to transfer to Middle Tennessee and while he was getting more minutes his role on the team was not growing as he was still getting minimal offensive looks and not providing much on the stat sheet.

At the end of his sophomore season, while playing in the CBI, something seemed to click for King as he started to show that he could score and rebound and carve out a nice role for the Blue Raiders.

Last season was a continuation of the CBI as the guard averaged 9 points and 4 rebounds per game. Those were career highs for the guard. The senior led the Blue Raiders in three-point makes and shot over 40% from deep a season ago. King was a three-point specialist last year, but as the season wore on and the guard gained more confidence he was starting to score more often from inside the three-point line. Middle Tennessee has a ton of confidence in King to get the job done when he is out on the floor and because of that he is going to have an increased role in the offense for the Blue Raiders this year.

The senior guard is deadly from the three-point line but he is developing into so much more. He still doesn’t drive the lane enough to complete his game, but when you are as good of a shooter as he has shown there really is no need for him to fix what isn’t broken. Middle Tennessee is just fine with the way their guard plays especially if he is going to shoot 40% from deep again this year. King is on the upward trajectory and if his career shows you anything about this year it is that he is going to improve from last year’s numbers. King is going to quickly put the Conference USA on watch.