Colorado State senior guard John Tonje announced on his Instagram account Monday morning he intends to transfer to Mizzou for the 2023-24 season.
Tonje (pronounced TON-jay) spent four years in Fort Collins, playing in 122 total games. He started 12 games as a junior before starting all 33 this season, 14.6 points per game while shooting 47.3% from the field and 38.9% from the 3-point line. The 6-foot-5 guard also averaged 4.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.8 steals.
"John’s an interesting case, I guess you don’t see it as much now, but he’s sort of your almost old schoo type," Kevin Lytle, who covers Colorado State for The Coloradoan, said. "He came in didn’t play a ton as a freshman, developed year to year and just got better. This year he took on a much bigger role…He needed to be the number two and he struggled with the weight of that for a while but if you look game by game he really started to put it together."
Tonje averaged 17.8 points per game over the Rams' final 11 games and was in double figures in ten of them. He had seven games of 20 or more points this season.
If you're looking for a player-to-player replacement comparison, Tonje is a bit of a hybrid between D'Moi Hodge and DeAndre Gholston. Gholston took 2.8 three-pointers per game while Hodge took 7.1 for the Tigers last year. Tonje falls right in between with 4.8 threes per game, a little less than half of his total field goal attempts.
"He's definitely somewhat selective on the three point shooting and I think that improved as the year went on," Lytle said. "He chose better shots and his percentages went up. He’s not a guy that will post up or anything like that, but he's a slasher and if he’s out there for any open threes he can obviously bang those pretty good."
Defensively, Lytle described Tonje as "hit and miss. Not an elite defender, but when he’s really locked in he can be pretty good. He has the physicality to do it and defend multiple positions."
Tonje's toughest Mountain West competition was San Diego State, which is headed to its first Final Four after beating Creighton 57-56 on Sunday. In three games against the Aztecs this season, Tonje averaged 16 points and two rebounds. He was 17-for-30 from the field in those three games.
The Omaha, Neb. native is the first player Mizzou head coach Dennis Gates has added as a transfer this offseason after taking a visit to campus last weekend. He has one year of eligibility remaining. PowerMizzou.com has reached out to Tonje for more details.
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