UNDs 1st commit is a Minnesotan

Last year the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux crossed over the eastern border to bring in a pair of Minnesotans amongst a sizeable recruiting class. One of those recruits was Warroad's Mitch Wilmer who slipped under the radar of most Minnesota high school basketball fans.

North Dakota has now added another forward from northern Minnesota for its 2009 class. This marks the second year in a row that the Sioux have added a relatively unknown (unknown to the majority of the state but not to schools in the upper northwest) big from Minnesota with little fan fare.

UND will have to replace some role playing seniors from this year's team and they are off to a nice start with the recent commitment from East Grand Forks forward Brandon Brekke. Brekke (who has been listed everywhere between 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-8 in the past 12 months) averaged 18.5 points and 11 rebounds last year as a junior.

For those familiar with Brekke his commitment to UND came as little surprise. Brandon father's Steve Brekke also played for the Sioux as did his uncle Chad and his aunt Durene Frydenlund.

Seeing the last name Frydenlund should make some Minnesota High School basketball fans do a double take and well it should as Brandon Brekke's high school coach is Jay Frydenlund. This is the same Jay Frydenlund who last year picked up his 400th career coaching victory and has been head coach at East Grand Forks for 17 years.

So with several connections to the university it was no surprise that Brekke accepted the UND scholarship offer shortly after it was extended a week ago today.

"I've been around UND since I was born," Brekke said. "I like everything about it. I can enjoy my senior season a lot more now. I really wanted to go to UND and since they're now Division one that was a bonus."

Brandon selected UND over interest from Augustana, St. Cloud State, and other schools. He knows that as an undersized forward he has to work on his ball skills. "I have to get better on the perimeter with my ball handling, shooting, and passing," Brekke said.

After watching him play this spring and summer with the ECI East team (comprised of players from eastern North Dakota, Brekke, and a couple kids from Moorhead HS in Minnesota) coaches who saw Brekke play described him as a solid player around the basket who is a little undersized at power forward but extremely hard working.

UND bolstered it's eight man class last year with Mitch Wilmer as well as Rockford's Nick Haugen and they join three other Minnesotans (Dustin Monsebroten from Marshall County Central, Travis Bledsoe from DeLaSalle, and Ben Lehnertz from Winona) on the UND squad this season.