Sports

Arctic blast: 9 Alaska men find their way to Division I college basketball

Alaskans are filling the ranks -- and filling buckets -- at the Division I level of college basketball.

Nine men's basketball players are playing at the highest level of the college game, and several of them have blossomed into legit stars for their teams.

Florida State's Devon Bookert (West) is one of the top guards in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Colgate's Damon Sherman-Newsome (Bartlett) and Houston Baptist's Colter Lasher (Dimond) are their team's leading scorers, and five of the nine lead their teams in 3-point shooting percentage.

Alaskans have had D-I success in the past. Muff Butler was a star at New Orleans in the 1980s, East's Trajan Langdon and Juneau's Carlos Boozer were household names for Duke in the 1990s and Mario Chalmers won a national title at Kansas in 2008.

But seldom before have so many from the 49th state been on the Division I scene at once, a phenomenon that can be attributed both to the quality of basketball in Alaska as well as increased awareness of what it takes to make the leap to Division I.

Getting exposure has always been a challenge. In the past, the only Alaskans who got D-I looks were prep superstars like Langdon, Boozer and Chalmers, all of whom were blue-chip prospects coming out of high school.

Getting recruiters to come to Alaska is still a challenge, but Alaskans have become more savvy about developing their games and drawing interest from coaches. Of the nine Alaskans playing D-I ball, only two -- Derrick Wilson of Marquette and Calvin Hoffman of Liberty -- went directly from high school to active Division I rosters, and Wilson didn't make the jump from an Alaska high school. He played one season at East and then spent the rest of his high school days at a Connecticut boarding school with a strong basketball program.

ADVERTISEMENT

The rest went to junior college (Sherman-Newsome and Oregon's Jalil Abdul-Bassit), took a redshirt year (South Dakota State's Connor Devine) or went to the prestigious Impact Basketball Academy in Las Vegas (Bookert, Lasher, Hartford's Jack Hobbs and Iona's Ryden Hines).

Bookert said Alaskans who want to play high-level college basketball have to be patient.

"I think there's just not much exposure up in Alaska," he said in a phone interview Friday after practicing in advance of a Saturday game against North Carolina State.

Bookert said players from Alaska can also draw interest from college coaches by sending out game tapes or attending basketball camps Outside.

It's hard to generalize about Alaska players, but based on this year's statistics it's safe to say coaches who sign Alaskans can count on one thing: shooting ability. Hines, Sherman-Newsome, Lasher, Abdul-Bassit and Bookert lead their teams in 3-point shooting percentage and Devine leads his squad in field goal percentage.

Bookert said he's not sure why Alaskans are typically skilled shooters. But he's got a couple of theories.

"It might be the cold or just something in the water," he said.

Bookert said one of the most important pieces of advice he'd give players hoping to succeed in Division I -- aside from shooting jumpers after practice -- is to spend time in the classroom. He said college coaches look for more than just basketball skill when they recruit players, which means athletes need to focus on their studies throughout high school.

"I would tell them to work hard, of course, and to have good grades," he said. "It means more than you think."

Jalil Abdul-Bassit

Oregon Ducks

East, 2011

6-4 senior guard

Abdul-Bassit, who won a state title at West in 2010 before transferring to East, is fourth in scoring for the Ducks with 7.7 points per game, and his 39.3 percentage from long range leads the team. A key reserve, he has started two games and scored a career-best 19 points in Oregon's 81-59 win over Portland State on Nov. 30, 2014.

Devon Bookert

Florida State Seminoles

West, 2011

ADVERTISEMENT

6-3 junior guard

Alaska's Gatorade Player of the Year in 2011 has become a star in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Bookert has started 50 of 82 games in three seasons and ranks 20th in program history in 3-pointers and 88th in career points (647). He's averaging 10.2 points per game, 2.7 assists per game and 4.1 rebounds per game. Despite missing almost a month with a foot injury, Bookert leads the Seminoles in 3-pointers (24), 3-point shooting percentage (38.7) and minutes per game (33.8). In 2012-13, Bookert set a single-season school record by shooting 52.5 percent from behind the arc (32 of 61); his career 44.4 percent shooting from deep ranks fourth in team history.

Connor Devine

South Dakota State Jackrabbits

Wasilla, 2012

6-10 sophomore forward

The 2012 Alaska Gatorade Player of the Year, Devine is averaging 2.7 points per game in his second season at South Dakota State. His 23 blocks rank second on the team and his 63 percent field goal percentage leads the team. On Dec. 18, 2014, he scored a career-high 13 points, pulled down seven rebounds and had three blocks in a win over Idaho State.

Ryden Hines

ADVERTISEMENT

Iona Gaels

Dimond, 2012

6-10 sophomore forward

Hines helped Dimond to a 4A championship in 2012. Now in his second season at Iona, Hines has started seven straight games, a stretch that's seen the team go 6-1. He's averaging 2.9 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game and shooting 43.5 percent from 3-point range. In a 74-58 win over Fairfield on Jan. 13, he scored a season-high nine points and grabbed six rebounds.

Jack Hobbs

Hartford Hawks

South, 2013

6-7 freshman forward

Hobbs has cracked the lineup twice in his first season at Hartford, playing a total of 14 minutes and scoring three points. His first collegiate basket was a 3-pointer in Hartford's 69-59 win over Binghamton on Jan. 7.

Calvin Hoffman

Liberty Flames

Anchorage Christian, 2014

ADVERTISEMENT

6-0 freshman guard

A four-time all-state performer who helped ACS to a Class 3A state championship in 2011, the walk-on has played in seven games as a true freshman. He is averaging 1.7 minutes a game and has amassed seven points, three rebounds and two steals.

Colter Lasher

Houston Baptist Huskies

Dimond, 2012

6-7 sophomore forward

ADVERTISEMENT

Lasher, one of two Division I players from Dimond's 2012 state title squad, has started 11 games this season and is second on his team in scoring at 11.4 points per game. He leads the Huskies in 3-point percentage (37.8) and is shooting 51.2 percent from the field. He scored a career-best 25 points in Houston Baptist's 68-56 win on Jan. 5 over McNeese State and has been the team's leading scorer in six of 14 games.

Damon Sherman-Newsome

Colgate Raiders

Bartlett, 2011

6-5 senior guard

Sherman-Newsome, who led Bartlett to a state 4A title in 2011, is the leading scorer for the Raiders, who are in first place in the Patriot League for the first time since 1998-99. He's averaging a team-best 15.6 points per game and shooting 41.7 percent from 3-point range. Sherman-Newsome scored a career-high 30 points in a Jan. 7 win over Holy Cross, becoming the seventh player from Alaska to score at least 30 points in a Division I game. He's started all 18 games, scoring in double figures 16 times. If he continues his current pace, he'll finish his career among the top 30 scorers in the program's 115-year history.

Derrick Wilson

Marquette Golden Eagles

East, 2011

6-1 senior guard

Wilson, who played one season at East before spending the next three years at a Connecticut boarding school, has started 12 of 16 games, ranks fifth in scoring at 6.3 points per game and second in assists at 3.2 per contest.

Matt Tunseth

Matt Tunseth is a former reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and former editor of the Alaska Star.

ADVERTISEMENT