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Shipp comfortable juggling roles during Sun Devil career

Senior Jerren Shipp has held every role in the ASU men’s basketball program. (Photo by Kyle Thompson)
Senior Jerren Shipp has held every role in the ASU men’s basketball program. (Photo by Kyle Thompson)

Jerren Shipp has held every role in the ASU men’s basketball program.

From starter and go-to scorer to sporadically used reserve, Shipp has done it all without wasting one moment complaining.

He cares about one thing, and every question you ask of him will be related back to one thing only: Winning.

When all is said and done, Shipp will leave the program only trailing fellow senior Derek Glasser in games played at ASU.

During his freshman season, Shipp was counted on to contribute right away. He started 22 games and was the team’s third-leading scorer at 7.6 points per game while playing over 30 minutes per game.

Over the course of his next three years on campus, Shipp’s minutes began to drop as ASU’s program began to build. In his junior season, he only averaged 13.3 minutes per game and 14.3 this season.

Through it all, Shipp’s attitude has stayed the same. He is ready to go whenever his name is called. He would rather have team success than individual success.

“I just try to stay focused on the game and not try to worry about what I am doing individually, but if we are winning as a team,” Shipp said. “I don’t care if I play two minutes or 20 minutes. I just care about winning.”

With his playing time cut so dramatically the last few years, Shipp admitted that transferring crossed his mind. But in the end, he decided to finish his career at ASU.

“It crossed my mind, but I never wanted to quit on the program,” Shipp said. “I have been through a lot with these guys, and I didn’t want to leave them, even though my individual stuff wasn’t going right. It was more emotions at the time and how I was feeling.”

While stars are important to win, successful teams also need guys like Shipp to succeed.

“He is a very even-keeled guy — he has always been all for the team,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “He hasn’t needed a lot of detailed explanation, because he gets it. He understands.”

Don’t mistake him for someone that doesn’t want to be on the court or that it was easy for him to sit and watch. It wasn’t.

“Everybody individually wants to play the whole game,” Shipp said. “I don’t want to come out of the game, but you have to accept the role you are given and do it the best you can. It has been tough, but we have been winning, so I can’t complain.”

After last season, he challenged himself to work hard during the offseason to put himself in a position to be successful his senior season. He is now seeing the dividends of that work coming down the stretch, as he is averaging 8.2 points per game during his last five contests.

“I am happy with the way I am finishing off,” Shipp said. “I want to keep the momentum going for the rest of the year. I am going to play as hard as I always have. I’m going to leave it all on the floor.”

Reach the reporter at andrew.gruman@asu.edu


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