SEATTLE — Go in the Colorado State locker room and try and guess who has the most points across their college basketball career.

It might take you a couple tries to get the right answer. It’s not Nique Clifford, who’s blossomed into one of the biggest stars in the country in his final season of eligibility. It’s not Jalen Lake, a four-year contributor and a multi-year starter for the Rams.

It’s Bowen Born, the 5-foot-11 guard from Norwalk, Iowa, and one of the most decorated players on the current roster. A few years ago he was named Mr. Iowa Basketball — a list that includes NBA players Harrison Barnes, Kirk Hinrich and Raef LaFrentz among many others — before a really successful career at Northern Iowa.

“Bowen’s a bucket,” CSU associate head coach Ali Farokhmanesh told The Denver Gazette.

The fifth-year senior is in his final year of college eligibility and is one of the oldest players on this year’s Rams. But this is his first trip to the NCAA Tournament and he’s got as much energy as the wide-eyed freshmen on the team as No. 12 seed CSU gets ready to take on No. 4 seed Maryland on Sunday (5:10 p.m. TBS) at Climate Pledge Arena.

In reality, getting to be a part of March Madness was really the only thing Born had left to check off in his college career. He scored nearly 1,500 points across four years with the Panthers, handling every role thrown at him whether it was freshman starter, bench spark plug as a sophomore and then go-to scorer as a junior and senior.

He only took one visit in the transfer portal last offseason and it was CSU. He had a previous connection to Farokhmanesh, a Northern Iowa legend, and made the jump.

“It’s been a good basketball move for me, but it’s also been a good life move,” Born told The Denver Gazette. “Colorado is amazing. The city of Fort Collins is amazing. It’s got a super cool vibe. I’m a big outdoors person. I do a ton of hiking. The weather is crazy out there compared to Iowa and the midwest. Super nice winters and you see the sun just about every day.”

Even the rainy Seattle weather couldn’t contain Born’s smile as he took the floor for the Rams’ first round NCAA Tournament win over Memphis on Friday.

He only played 10 minutes but made the most of them, scoring four points and getting a key transition layup during CSU’s big second half push to take the lead.

“My experience in college has helped me maybe not be as nervous,” Born said. “If I was a freshman out there, it might’ve been a little harder to realize that it is just a game. I didn’t make my threes like I wanted to, but I still felt like I could go out there and impact the game in other ways. It’s a little bit of both. I still feel like a vet and feel experienced, but when I’m looking back on it, that’s something you dream of as a kid.”

If you know anything about Born’s upbringing, it’s almost as if his entire basketball career was leading up to this moment.

His dad is Mike Born, a former standout player at Iowa State and a longtime NBA scout who currently works for the Indiana Pacers. His grandfather, the late Gene Klinge, is the winningest coach in Iowa high school girls’ basketball history with 1,009 career victories.

“I couldn’t ask for a better support system and a better mom and dad,” Born said. “My dad, his job provided me with some unique opportunities and I’m super grateful to learn from him throughout my entire youth career, high school career and now college.”

While it may look like Born has completely evolved in his final year in college, playing a career-low 14 minutes per game for Niko Medved’s team, he doesn’t view it that way at all. To him, every role he’s undertaken during his entire basketball career has been about whatever would help his team win as many games as possible.

“It’s a different role, but the same type of mindset,” Born said. “At UNI, it was more having the ball in my hands a lot, shooting a lot, having to be a score-first player. My time here has just been so enjoyable. We’ve got such a great group of guys. This season wouldn’t have been defined by whether or not we made the NCAA Tournament, but this and getting to experience it with these guys just makes me super happy for myself but also everybody else.”

Whether it’s big games like the spark he provided in the Mountain West tournament championship against Boise State or the immediate impact he made with his teammates, making custom bobbleheads for everyone, the CSU coaching staff couldn’t have asked for more from Born and it’s something Farokhmanesh will never forget.

“The sacrifices that he made to be able to do that for this team… he could’ve gone anywhere else in the country or stayed (at UNI) and played probably significantly more than he has this year,” Farokhmanesh said. “The contributions that he’s made to this team, and more so than just on the court, it’s all the off the court stuff too, he’s changed this group and added to the culture so much just from being him.”