January 15, 2014 at 2:48 p.m.
White finding role at Bemidji St.
Former Hodag standout seeing time off the bench
White finding role at Bemidji St.
The 6-foot-7-inch post player dominated high school competition, earning him looks from several college teams. The recruiting process began months before his senior season even started, but Bemidji State University, White's eventual destination, had a different approach.
"The recruiting process was way different with them than any other school that recruited me," White said. "Most the schools were too drawn out in their approach for my liking. It would be six to nine months before they offered me a scholarship."
Bemidji State discovered White at an AAU tournament in September of his senior year but the phone number they had for him turned out to be incorrect. It wasn't until months later that the school finally got in touch with him.
"They contacted one of my AAU teammates and got my number in early March, which is extremely late," he said. "The process was very quick and I told them I was looking to make my decision in about two weeks. They came and watched me in (an all-star game in Duluth) and offered me my scholarship right after that. Their offer was great and allowed me to go to school for free. I knew I wasn't going to get much student aid, so that was important."
When White finally got on campus in August he was immediately struck by how different basketball would be at the collegiate level. Not only was he adjusting to a new team and new surroundings, but a brand new role as well.
"It's been harder than I expected," he said. "I expected it to be hard, but it's an entirely different level than I was used to. I was used to scoring a lot, and I don't do that anymore. My role now is to rebound and defend. That's strange to me. In the GNC, which is kind of a weaker conference, I wasn't pushed as hard. Now, I'll come in for four-minute stretches for a quick stint, and when I come out, I'm exhausted. You have to work so hard to do everything right with position and technique on every possession at this level."
While White is limited to a reserve role right now, he's working hard to learn as much as he can before his number is called. That day may come sooner rather than later for the freshman.
"Right now, I'm third off the bench," White said. "We have our two bigs and then I come in off the bench for them. Those guys are both seniors, so next year, I'll have a big role to fill. I want to be able to fill in for them and that will take a lot of work."
He has to shore up any weaknesses and part of that means keeping the intensity up throughout the game. With the kind of competition he faces not only on game days, but in practice, White said he can't afford to take any possessions off.
"There's no weak link," he said. "At Rhinelander, you would study your opponents and there would be players you could collapse on and take advantage of because they couldn't really play. It's not like that at all at this level. We have a guy who's a freshman like me who scored over 2,000 points and was his high school's all-time leading scorer. Now he's sitting on the bench for us and working his tail off in practice. There are no bad players."
Until White gets his chance to take on a more prominent role though, he's a glue guy. His team counts on him to come in for stretches, rebound and play strong defense. That's just fine with him.
"At Rhinelander, we had a good team," he said. "I didn't put up 1,000 points like some of my new teammates did when they were in high school. My approach has always been to just do what the team needs from me and I'll continue to operate like that."
While preseason predictions weren't kind to Bemidji State, the club currently sits at 8-4 with several quality wins already to its credit. White said a big goal is to make it to the dance, but they've still got a lot of work to do to make that a reality.
"We were picked to finish near the bottom and right away, knocked off the team who was predicted to win the conference," he said. "We just lost to Winona State and they were ranked nationally. They were supposed to kill us and we only lost by one after going one for four in free throws down the stretch. We're not far from being a very, very good team."
While business on the basketball court is progressing as planned for the former Hodag, White said like most freshmen, he gets a little homesick from time to time.
"I miss Rhinelander a lot," he said. "I didn't expect to miss it as much as I have. I expected college to be really fun, and it has been, but I miss home. I've grown to love Rhinelander more as I've been away."
After classes ended for the fall semester, White was able to spend some time in the Northwoods for the holidays. He said it was a welcome break and long overdue.
"I was gone from August until Dec. 21," he said. "Driving back and seeing the water tower with the sun coming up over it was incredible. It was so great to see my buddies Tyler Thorsen and Brett Mathews. This summer, I will have a much better appreciation for Rhinelander, that's for sure."
White has a lot of basketball to play before summer break rolls around. If he has anything to say about it, that will include a trip to the Division II NCAA tournament.
Andy Hildebrand may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.