University of Minnesota Duluth men's basketball alum, Brandon Myer, has signed a one-year player deal with Lahti Basketball in Finland. Myer moves to Lahti directly from the ranks of the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he spent four years, leaving as the school's all-time leading scorer.
"Our recruitment has been surprisingly straightforward. When Brandon was offered to us, he immediately seemed to meet our requirements in terms of defense, presence, ball handling, size, movement and shooting skills. The more we watched, the more interested we were. He is a great shooter, but is also able to put the ball on the ground with both hands. For the first two years, he played as a post player, so there's also a repertoire near the basket," commented the enthusiastic head coach of Lahti Basketball, Pieti Poikola.
Myer, left the men's basketball program by becoming just the eighth Bulldog to attain All-American Honors. Myer was named by the National Association of Basketball Coaches as an All-American, selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC in Division II. Myer joins the likes of Nicky Johnson ('83 (NAIA I Third Team)), Jeff Guidinger ('87 (NAIA I Third Team)), David Thompson ('88 (NAIA I Third Team)), Jay Guidinger ('89 (NAIA I Third Team), '90 (NAIA I First Team) & '91 (NAIA I First Team)), Jerry Meyer ('94 (NAIA Second Team)), Josh Quigley ('00 (NABC Third Team, Daktronics First Team)) and Jason Schneeweis ('03 (DII Bulletin Third Team)).
Tabbed as preseason Player of the Year in the NSIC, Myer lived up to the hype and snagged the Player of the Year award in the conference. En route to the award, Myer was able to attain Player of the Week in the Northern Division a total of five times over the year and was the first NSIC player to be named as a United State Basketball Writers Association National Player of the Week.
This past season, Myer was able to start all 31 games the squad played on the year. In those 31 contests, he would score 23.7 points a night (second in the NSIC, 13th in DII). He would snag 9.7 boards per contest (third in the NSIC, 21st in DII), shot a 52.8% from the floor (246-466) (fifth in the NSIC, 89th in DII), grab 52 steals (second in the NSIC, 75th in DII), swat 30 shots and play 33.9 minutes a night while dishing out 79 assists. On the year, he was able to muster 21 20+ point performances, eight 30+ point performances and three 40+ point performances. Myer would take over as UMD's all-time leading scorer in the final regular season game against the Bemidji State University Beavers, and finished his career with 2,045, the only Bulldog that has eclipsed 2,000. He would finish his season with six of his final seven games scoring 30+ points, and three of those performances being 40+ points. He set a career high for himself in a game against Minnesota State University Moorhead with 45 points, as well as finish with 15 double-doubles on the year, ranked second in the NSIC and 11th overall in DII.
