Ready Yourselves For Deonte Burton

Deonte Burton will make his much anticipated Cyclone debut on Saturday as Iowa State takes on UNI in the Hy-Vee Big 4 Classic at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The 6'4" junior and former top-50 prospect will add immediate depth to a thin Cyclone rotation, and with Naz Mitrou-Long done for the season, Burton's arrival couldn't come at a better time.

Burton is perhaps best known for his freakish athleticism and array of dunks while rocking Timberlands, but as it turns out, he's an actual basketball player and more than a running YouTube highlight reel. It's tough to know what we can really expect from Burton, but unlike Jameel McKay a year ago, this is a mid-season addition that has at least seen Division-1 action.

That being said, Burton hasn't played a meaningful minute of college basketball since December 6th a year ago, so in preparation of his arrival, here's a quick refresher of what type of player he was at Marquette.

• Burton played in all 32 of Marquette's games as a freshman and played in the Golden Eagles' first 8 games last year. Over the course of those 40 games, he played a little more than 500 minutes and averaged 13.3 minutes per appearance (12.6 as a freshman and 16.1 as a sophomore). In nearly half of those games, he played 15 minutes or more, posting a career high of 26 minutes (twice).
• His scoring was a little inconsistent, but Burton notched double-figure scoring efforts in 16 of his 40 games and scored a career-high 23 points against Xavier in the Big East Tournament as a freshman. Overall, he averaged 6.8 points per game between his time in Milwaukee.
• As for Burton's shooting splits, there's a lot to like. He shot 47.7% overall and while he only attempted 18 treys, he knocked down 8 of those looks, suggesting he's got the range in his arsenal. At the line, Burton wasn't great, hitting only 44-68 (64.7%) during his freshman year, but he was on pace for a much better sophomore year, nailing 13-17 (76.5%) early into his sophomore campaign.
• Much has been made about the impact Burton could have on the glass. Unfortunately, the numbers tell another story as Burton was rarely much of a factor on the boards at Marquette. With 70 career rebounds in 40 games (1.75 average), it might be best to not get your hopes up about him becoming the next Charles Barkley.
• Defensively, Burton could potentially be a factor. He'll likely be asked to spend some time on the interior, but he at least appeared to be a capable thief while at Marquette, swiping a career high 5 steals against Georgia Tech last year.

Burton is a superb talent, and having watched him play last summer in Capital City League games, his athleticism is at times breathtaking to behold. For whatever reason, he rarely seemed to put it all together at Marquette, but will likely get every opportunity to showcase his talent in the weeks and months ahead.

But you don't really care about that, do you?

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!

And...

(Warning: The following video contains an appearance from The Mayor)