Jamestown’s Walters commits to NCAA Division I Wyoming

FARGO — The reigning NAIA males’s basketball participant of the yr has discovered a brand new program to finish his faculty profession.

Mason Walters — who performed the previous 4 seasons on the College of Jamestown — has dedicated to play for the College of Wyoming he introduced Wednesday, April 12, by way of social media.

Wyoming is an NCAA Division I program within the Mountain West Convention.

“He’s arduous to protect 1-on-1 at any stage,” mentioned College of Jamestown head coach Danny Neville, who has been this system’s head coach for eight seasons. “He’s going to must adapt to some size and measurement and stuff, however it shouldn’t be an excessive amount of for him to adapt to and I feel he’ll be an amazing participant at that stage.”

The 6-foot-9, 225-pound Walters has one season of eligibility remaining. He averaged 26.6 factors and 9.4 rebounds per sport this previous season, serving to the Jimmies advance to at the least the spherical of 16 within the NAIA nationwide event for a 3rd consecutive season.

The Jimmies made the Elite Eight in the course of the 2020-2021 season.

“Each time I have a look at him I consider a winner,” Neville mentioned. “Not solely was he an amazing participant, however we had been actually profitable and he made others higher. He has an amazing work ethic. He’s a particular participant.”

Walters scored 2,662 factors and grabbed 1,239 rebounds throughout his profession with the Jimmies, taking part in in 119 video games. He averaged 22.4 factors and 10.4 rebounds per sport for his profession. Walters was a three-time, first-team All-American.

“I’m tremendous happy with him,” Neville mentioned. “I’ve all the time mentioned when he initially signed right here he signed for 4 years and COVID type of gave him one other yr.”

A Jamestown Excessive Faculty graduate, Walters was named North Dakota’s Mr. Basketball in 2019 and likewise helped the Blue Jays to an undefeated Class A boys state basketball championship for the 2018-2019 season.

Wyoming posted a 9-21 general report and a 4-14 mark within the Mountain West Convention this previous season.

Peterson covers faculty athletics for The Discussion board, together with Concordia Faculty and Minnesota State Moorhead. He additionally covers the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks impartial baseball workforce and helps out with North Dakota State soccer protection. Peterson has been working on the newspaper since 1996.