GOLDEN, Colo. - Colorado School of Mines men's basketball has announced a pair of graduate transfers as Stanford's Sam Beskind and Colorado State's Adam Thistlewood will join the program for the 2022-23 season.

Beskind, a 6-4 point guard, is a native of Tucson, Ariz. and will be a two-time graduate of Stanford when he arrives at Mines. Thistlewood, a 6-8 forward, is a familiar name to basketball fans in Colorado, starring at Golden High School before enjoying a standout career in Fort Collins. 

Beskind was the 2022 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year at Stanford and was a standout leader on the court and in the classroom for the Cardinal, walking on to the team and eventually earning a scholarship spot. He was a four-year program member at Stanford but still retains two seasons of eligibility. Beskind appeared in 55 games including four starts as a senior against San Jose State, Valparaiso, Baylor, and Colorado, collecting 17 points, 21 rebounds, and nine assists in averaging 4.1 minutes per game. 

In high school at Catalina Foothills (Ariz.), Beskind was a finalist for the Arizona High School Boys Basketball Player of the Year averaging 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game as a senior. The regional player of the year scored 1,383 points in his prep career and also represented the United States in winning gold at the 2017 Maccabiah Games in 2017. Beskind holds a bachelor's degree in Management Science and Engineering and completing his master's in the same major. He plans to study in the Humanitarian Engineering master's program at Mines.

"We are thrilled that Sam chose Mines this time around - we recruited Sam hard four years ago and turned us down for Stanford," Orser said. "Sam is an extraordinarily talented person in many ways. He is exceptionally bright, has an incredible self-awareness about him regarding his surroundings, and has a depth of understanding that is unique in itself. If you visit with Sam for five minutes, you would think he might be the president of the United States someday. Sam is also a very good basketball player who is very competitive, tough minded, and a hard worker. We will utilize his speed, and great defensive ability in our system. Our basketball program, the Humanities Engineering program, and Mines will benefit by Sam's presence once he steps foot on this campus, and the world will benefit once he graduates from Mines."

Thistlewood played four seasons at Colorado State and will utilize his additional year of eligibility granted due to COVID-19 to play in his hometown. As a four-year starter with the Rams, Thistlewood scored 885 points with 330 rebounds over his career, and stood out for his shooting ability draining 171 three-pointers including three seasons of 50 or more. He ranks fifth in program history in three-pointers made and eighth in starts (97). Thistlewood was a 2021 All-Mountain West Honorable Mention pick, a four-time Academic All-Mountain West honoree, and the 2021 Merrill-Gheen Award winner as the most outstanding male scholar-athlete at Colorado State.

At Golden High, Thistlewood was the JeffCo Player of the Year and a two-time first-team all-Colorado selection for the Demons. Thistlewood is set to earn his Computer Science degree from CSU and will major in the CS master's program at Mines. Thistlewood will be a third-generation Mines basketball player; his grandfather Donald, father Dave, and mother Kelly all played at Mines, and his mother is a member of the Mines Athletics Hall of Fame and was the women's basketball program's all-time leading scorer at the time of her graduation. 

"Adam is another exceptional student-athlete we recruited out of high school, but chose the D-I route," Orser said. "He is an amazing and talented person as well as being a great basketball player. He will be allowed to utilize his leadership ability right away within our program. Adam will be asked to be more of a complete basketball player here at Mines within our system. He can handle, post, make buckets from all areas, and deliver leadership. He has a love for the game, a passion to compete, and work ethic to tie it all together to be greater than he already is. I truly believe, if Adam is used correctly, and develops his aggressive mentality, he will have a long future playing basketball at the higher levels. But with a graduate degree from Mines, he will be on an amazing career path regardless of basketball."