Strengths: Agile forward with excellent speed running the floor ... A defensive minded player who takes great pride in his ability to defend Fundamentally sound rebounding technique with a knack for timing the ball off the glass A presence as a shot blocker, his athleticism and good lateral quickness allow him to defend out to the perimeter and be a good on-ball defender . Strong leaper, he can really rise Takes the charge well.Cleans up the offensive glass, as evidenced by the fact that close to 60% of his rebounds this year are on the offensive end Nice back-to-the basket moves down low. At just 19 he has a lot of physical depelopment left. Shows a lot of untapped potential ...

Weaknesses: Offensively, he is still very raw Not yet comfortable with the ball in his hands outside of the low post Lacks a midrange game at this point He has bad positioning in the offensive paint when looking for the ball, this really hurts his chances of getting good quality entry passes to work on his low post moves Really needs to add some bulk in order to bang with the big boys and make his low post game more effective, and he is working on it

Notes: Has really played himself into more playing time this year because of his desire on defense and the inability for the two upperclassmen ahead of him to perform effectively. Even Martelli (SJU coach) admits that they don't yet run a lot of plays for him at this point, since they are still stuck in a dribble drive, penetrate and kick out for the three ball type of offense. This will change next year. Look for Nivins to be the second option on the team next year and to have numbers like 15, 12 and three blocks per game.