Coming off a junior season in which he led the Prairie City-Monroe basketball team to its second-best finish in school history, Mustang senior Scott Bruxvoort has recently accepted a scholarship offer to play at the NCAA Division I level at the University at Albany in New York.
The 6-foot-5 Bruxvoort earned first-team all-state honors last season after leading PCM in scoring, rebounds and steals as the Mustangs went 27-1, with its only loss coming in the Class 2A State Semifinals at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines last March.
Bruxvoort also had offers from the South Dakota, Upper Iowa, Quincy University (Ill.) and Truman State (Mo.).
With his college choice already made up two months before the start of his senior basketball season at PCM, Bruxvoort said it’s a load off his mind as the Mustangs gear up for another run at a state title.
“It’s definitely a relief,” he said. “I’m not going to have to worry about what school I’m going to during the season. I can make it my sole goal to win a state championship. It will be nice just to focus on school, basketball and not on who’s in the stands watching.”
Bruxvoort took his official visit to Albany back in mid-September, and the Great Danes made the offer for a full scholarship shortly after. UAlbany assistant coach Brent Wilson — a Cedar Rapids native — spearheaded the recruiting, and came out to watch Bruxvoort work out with his brother, Dylan. Bruxvoort informed UAlbany of his decision early last week.
Albany was the final school Bruxvoort visited, and he said he was immediately impressed with the campus and the coaching staff on his visit.
“The city has a small-town feel to it,” he said. “The actual student life on campus has a smaller feel. The coaches are young and upbeat, their style of play fits with what I can do on the court and I get all my years of college paid for.
“When I got home from the visit I just really thought it’d be a good fit for me. the coaches shared the belief that they really wanted me there. That was the most important thing.”
Since the end of his junior basketball season, Bruxvoort has stayed busy with basketball. He said he took about a week off after the state tournament to regroup, and shortly after started playing with Kingdom Hoops, an AAU affiliate, for a 2-month spring season. In July, he moved on to play with the Iowa Barnstormers, a select AAU team that based in Eastern Iowa that played in tournaments in Las Vegas, Milwaukee and Chicago.
Bruxvoort started taking visits to schools in August, and with the recruitment process now behind him, the focus moves to preparing for his senior basketball season.
“Now I can just get in the gym, work on my jumper and get ready for a great season.”
Entering the 2011-2012 season, the Mustangs are sure to be one of the top contenders to win the state championship. They return four of five starters and seven of their top eight scorers from last year.
At the state tournament, Bruxvoort averaged 24.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game and made the all-tournament team. He was 27-of-48 from the field, 20-of-27 from the free-throw line and collected 11 offensive rebounds through three games. He led PCM in scoring each game at state, including 29 points against Pella Christian in the tournament opener in Des Moines. It was the first time PCM had made the state tournament since 2004.
Bruxvoort — who was second-team all-state last year — ended the season shooting 56 percent from the field, 68 percent at the line and collected 7.4 rebounds per contest. His season-high was 47 points against Grandview Park Baptist.
The move to Albany will be quite a transition. Bruxvoort lives in Mitchellville — which has a population of 2,300. Albany has just under 100,000, and the metro area has more than 850,000. New York City is 150 miles to the South.
“It’s definitely going to be different,” he said. “It will be an experience, that’s for sure. It will be a time for me to grow up, mature and get away from Iowa.”
Bruxvoort said the Great Danes basketball schedule includes a lot of Friday-Saturday and Saturday-Sunday weekend doubleheaders, which will allow his parents to make the trip out to watch him play.
Albany plays in the America East Conference, and last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2007.