Part of the highly rated, but troubled 2002-2003
freshman class with Travis Garrison, John Gilchrist and Chris McCray.
Nik was the highest recruited player from Maine in many years.
Caner-Medley had good size, great athletic ability and put up some nice
stats, but will be remembered for being part of a disappointing time in
Maryland basketball. At 6'8" 240 lbs, Nik primarily played small
forward. He was a bit of a tweener in that he had trouble guarding
quick small forwards like Julius Hodge.
At a freshmen, Nik split time with Calvin McCall. He started 18 games
and averaged 6 points and 3.5 rebounds a game. His best game was a
victory at Georgia Tech where he had 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Caner-Medley suffered an ankle injury in the sweet sixteen loss to
Michigan State, which appeared to result in a loss of some of his
explosiveness.
As a sophomore. In 2003-2004 Nik averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds as a
fulltime starter. Caner Medley was the star of the game in an upset of
then number 1 ranked Florida early in the year, where he had 22 points
and 13 boards. NCM struggled a bit during post season with poor games
in the ACC tournament and the 2nd round of
the NCAA tournament. At the time, it was hard to imagine Nik would
never get a chance to play in the NCAA tournament again.
During the 2004-2005 season, NCM led in the team in scoring averaging 16
points and 6 rebounds a game. After 11 straight NCAA tournament
appearances, Maryland did not make the tournament, losing in the
semi-finals of the NIT to South Carolina. The team struggled after DJ
Strawberry suffered a season ending injury in January and John Gilchrist
had problems getting along with coaches and teammates. The highlight of
the season was two victories against Duke. In the victory at Duke, Nik
led the team with 25 points and an internet hoax led Duke's fan to think
that Nik's girlfriend is named Myra, and her pet name for him was
"Piggy" which lead the Duke fan to chant "Myra Piggy" when NCM was at
the foul line. This sounded a lot like "Myron Piggy" who was involved
in a Duke recruiting scandal several years before. The game at Duke was
in the middle of a six game hot streak for NCM where he averaged 23.5
points a game including a career high 35 points in a victory at home
against Temple.
As a senior, Nik stats were similar to his Junior year averaging 15
points and 6 rebounds a game, but most would agree that he had his best
all round year, by playing more under control than he did in previous
seasons. NCM had a torrid three game stretch in January where averaged
28.7 points a game and 9 rebounds. Caner-Medley again had a big game
against Temple with 30 points and 10 rebounds in a loss on the road.
Nik was also more consistent with double digit scoring in 21 of the
final 23 games. The Terps missing the NCAAs again in 2005-2006 as they
struggled without a ACC caliber point guard. Nik was third team All-ACC
and ended up with 1,573 points in his career, which at the time was good
for 13th on the Terps all time scoring list.
In December of 2007 Nik went overseas to pursue an opportunity overseas
with CB Gran Canaria of the ACB, the top Spanish league.
