Paul Klee: CU Buffs recruit Drew Crawford shows why Nikola Jokic is an All-Star teacher, too

HIGHLANDS RANCH — Drew Crawford laughs as he describes his favorite Nikola Jokic moment.

Don’t we all?

For Crawford, the ThunderRidge High School basketball star signed to play at Colorado, it was that time Jokic convinced the refs to call a 10-second violation on Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

“Joker was working on that the whole game!” Crawford said after a recent Grizzlies practice.

Or was it that time Jokic, with a lead, wasted 4 seconds by delaying an in-bounds pass?

“He waits for the ref to get to ‘four,’ then he’ll throw it in. So smart,” Crawford said. “If you watch him real close, you pick up things that you can use. I love that man’s basketball IQ.”

With Jokic in the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, his impact can be felt all across Colorado.

That includes our high school gyms, where teenagers probably won’t grow to 7 feet tall and lead a parade through Denver but still become smarter players simply by watching Jokic.

Ask Crawford, a 6-foot-5 guard and one of my favorite local kids to sign with Tad Boyle’s Buffs.

“My Dad (Tommy Crawford) is a huge cerebral-type player who really looks into the mindfulness of the game and makes me focus on thinking the game,” Drew said. “It’s not just ‘oh, he made a good move’ or ‘he dunked on that guy.’ My Dad tells me to watch how that play happened and how he got open. So when we’re watching Jokic, we’re watching that stuff.”

How does a young man earn a full-ride scholarship to play at CU in the Big 12? Drew’s dad, a former Division I player who finished his college career at Regis University, puts Drew through 2-hour workouts on the outdoor courts at nearby Marcy Park — “no matter the weather, rain or shine,” the younger Crawford says.

Tommy Crawford begins with 45 minutes of ball-handling drills before moving into shooting work, ball-screen drills and a heavy ball that leaves Drew’s arms and shoulders all but numb.

“That heavy ball, man. It’s not fun. But it works,” Drew said.

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CU had to put in the recruiting work to land Crawford, whose runner-up was Stanford. The Buffs began recruiting him after his eighth-grade year, if you can believe it, and staying in-state was “a blessing” but not a priority. There’s only one Derrick White, but Crawford’s body type and smarts remind of the CU-Boulder grad and Boston Celtics star from nearby Parker.

Those around him believe Crawford’s greatest attribute — one reason the Colorado coaching staff believes he can develop into an NBA prospect — is his basketball brain.

“Drew’s a very cerebral player,” said the great Joe Ortiz, who has won over 300 games and four state titles as the only boys basketball coach ThunderRidge has known.

Funny, that’s true of Jokic, too. The Nuggets’ two-time league MVP earned his best-player-in-the-world status thanks to a beautiful mind that thinks the game even better than he plays it.

How is it possible Jokic continues to befuddle defenses customized to slow him down?

As Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth told me last season, Jokic treats the game as if it’s a puzzle. And it’s only a matter of time before a basketball genius figures out the solution.

“It’s like a brain game, a chess game,” Jokic said during the NBA Finals.

Figuring out the favorite to win the Class 6A state title is a serious puzzle in itself. Yes, it’s already the best time of the year again. Three classifications will learn their CHSAA state tournament brackets on Sunday. Fruita Monument (22-0) tops the selection and seeding index. But in a season that’s been wide open, would anyone be surprised if the state champs come from top contenders like Mountain Vista (19-4), Chaparral (18-5), Rock Canyon (18-5), Valor Christian (20-2), Smoky Hill (16-6), Eaglecrest (15-7) — or Crawford and ThunderRidge (18-5)?

“The next month is going to be incredible,” Crawford says.

And when March Madness has come and gone, Joker Time takes the stage.

“He’s a great teacher just watching him,” Crawford says.

Add it to a long list of gifts Denver’s perennial All-Star has brought to Colorado: showing kids that basketball is a brain game, too.