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Colorado State basketball team celebrates winning Mountain West title

Video of the Colorado State men’s basketball team celebrating winning the Mountain West championship with a victory over Boise State.

Two Rams will participate in the 2025 NBA combine.

One-time Colorado State men’s basketball players Nique Clifford and John Tonje were both on the official NBA combine invite list released May 2.

The NBA combine will take place from May 11-18 at Wintrust Arena and the Marriott Marquis in Chicago. It’s a chance for players to showcase their game in front of scouts and front office members of NBA teams ahead of the draft.

Clifford is a 6-foot-6 wing who played the last two seasons of his college career at CSU, where he blossomed into a superstar after three years at Colorado.

Clifford averaged 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 assists per game in 2024-25 as he led the Rams to a Mountain West conference tournament title and earned honorable-mention All-American honors. He then helped CSU win a first-round NCAA Tournament game.

Over two seasons at CSU, Clifford played 72 games and averaged 15.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game as the Rams played in the NCAA Tournament each season. This is Clifford’s second year in the combine in a row. He participated a year ago before withdrawing from the NBA draft to return for a final season as a Ram.

The 6-foot-5 Tonje enters the NBA draft process officially as a Wisconsin player, but he spent four seasons at CSU. Tonje went from a lightly-recruited player out of Nebraska to a key piece on CSU’s 2022 NCAA Tournament team.

Tonje went from averaging 3.6 points per game as a freshman to 14.6 in his final season (2023-24) at CSU. Overall, Tonje played 122 games at CSU and averaged 8.6 points per game.

He was eligible to play another season after his four at CSU due to COVID and transferred to Missouri, but played in just eight games due to injury and was able to get another year of eligibility.

He transferred to Wisconsin and had an All-American season with the Badgers. Tonje averaged 19.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game for Wisconsin. Tonje played 167 career college games.

When is the 2025 NBA draft?

Here is a look at key dates around the NBA draft:

May 11-18: NBA draft combineMay 12: NBA draft lotteryJune 25: First round of NBA draft (6 p.m. Mountain on ABC and ESPN)June 26: Second round of NBA draft (6 p.m. Mountain on ESPN)

Follow sports reporter Kevin Lytle on X and Instagram @Kevin_Lytle.