After growing up in a Christian household and attending a Christian school, Anders Broman knew it would be difficult to play basketball in a similar environment at the Division I collegiate level.
So the Lakeview Christian Academy senior considered it a bonus when he found out his university of choice, South Dakota State, has a Christian men's basketball head coach in Scott Nagy.
"That was really big," Broman said earlier this week, after returning from the Brookings, S.D., campus. "I wasn't going to decide where I went to school just because the head coach was a Christian or not, but when I went out there I really loved the school. When we found out he was a Christian, it was icing on the cake."
Broman, who is just 252 points shy of Kevin Noreen's Minnesota career scoring record of 4,086 points, made an unofficial visit to SDSU in August and followed that up with an official visit last weekend. After touring the school's exercise science labs and attending a football game Saturday, the 6-foot-1 shooting guard gave the Jackrabbits an oral commitment the next morning.
"I have heard, and seen pictures, that they come out and support the basketball team like that as well," Broman said about the packed football stadium. "To just play in front of an atmosphere like that is something that I really want to do."
ADVERTISEMENT
Broman's parents, John and Jill, who also made the trek to Brookings, said the decision was unanimous.
"John and I have been praying that if Anders couldn't go to a Christian school -- and there's not many D-I Christian schools -- that he would play under a Christian coach," Jill Broman said. "Our prayers were answered."
Nagy, who has coached SDSU for 17 seasons and been honored for his work with impoverished children, joined the Bromans for a lasagna dinner at the family's Duluth home on a recruiting visit last week. Jill Broman said he reminded them of Lakeview Christian coach Bob Newstrom.
Broman, who scored a state-record 1,311 points and averaged a record 43.7 points per game in leading the Lions to their first Class A state tournament in the 2011-12 season, received as many as 19 Division I scholarship offers. He made official visits to Yale and Vermont on back-to-back weekends prior to his trip to Brookings.
But the Jackrabbits, coming off a 27-8 season that culminated in the program's NCAA Tournament debut, caught Broman's eye. The team's up-tempo offense was another positive.
"They are a program on the rise and that's something I love about them," he said. "I think I will fit well into that system."
His mother thinks so, too.
"There's something about being in the Midwest and being within driving distance; we can hop in the car and get there in six-and-a-half hours," she said. "We also loved how the community embraces athletics at SDSU. Being a small town, maybe there's not as much to do as in a bigger city, so they really embrace the sports program."
