Big Sky Conference

UND’s Hooker driven to live up to MVP billing

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Editor’s Note: This story is the second installment of a series spotlighting the trends in the Big Sky Conference, the challenges of playing in a mid-major league and profiling six of the premier guards in the conference. For the first installment, click here. For profile on Weber State senior Jeremy Senglin, click here

Quinton Hooker barely stepped off the floor as North Dakota battled for its first win in Fargo since 2003. But the UND star could not buy a bucket against rival North Dakota State.

In front of more than 5,000 rabid Bison fans, Hooker struggled mightily to find his stroke. With the NDSU defense keying on the North Dakota senior, the former Mr. Minnesota made just one of his 10 field goal attempts. He missed all five 3-pointers as the Fighting Hawks battled for their first win at the Scheels Center in 14 seasons.

Hooker finished the game with just four points. That sort of outing in a crucial non-conference game by UND’s best player should indicate doom for the visitors that night on December 7. But that’s how North Dakota head coach Brian Jones knows his senior is a true MVP candidate.

UND senior Quinton Hooker is the Big Sky men's basketball preseason MVP/ photo by Brooks Nuanez

UND senior Quinton Hooker / photo by Brooks Nuanez

“He didn’t score well but we won because he got others involved,” Jones said. “That shows the growth in him. His ability to understand that when he’s having an off night that he can impact the game in different ways with his defense, with his assist to turnover ratio, with his voice and his overall leadership is huge. That’s why I think he’s an MVP-type candidate.”

Hooker played all but one minute that night. The 6-foot, 205-pounder dished out nine of UND’s 14 assists as the visitors shot 46 percent from the floor. Hooker grabbed four rebounds, swiped two steals and did not commit a personal foul as North Dakota won in Fargo for the first time in a long time, 74-56 three weeks ago.

“He does so many things that may not show up in the stat book but as coaches as we are watching and evaluating game film, he’s a winner and he brings winning plays in practice and especially in games,” said Jones, who has won 144 games as he enters his 11th season at UND.

During the stretch run of his junior year, Hooker carried his team as much as any guard in the guard-heavy Big Sky Conference. Hooker scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds in a one-point win over Northern Colorado. He hit 15-of-20 shots, scored 38 points and played all 40 minutes in a three-point win over Portland State five days later. Two days after that, Hooker hit 11-of-12 shots, including all five of his tries from beyond the arc, to score 34 points in a blowout win over Sacramento State.

In the Big Sky Tournament in Reno, the fifth-seeded Fighting Hawks needed all 30 of Hooker’s points to outlast 12th-seeded Southern Utah, 85-80 in the first round. Sparked by Hooker’s aggressive penetration and deft playmaking, UND destroyed fourth-seeded Idaho State 83-49. The game included a 30-3 run as North Dakota exploded into the semifinals.

UND quard Quinton Hooker (21)

UND quard Quinton Hooker (21)

Against top-seeded Weber State with a bid to the Big Sky championship game on the line, Hooker and Weber State star guard Jeremy Senglin engaged in a memorable dual. Hooker scored four points in the last minute of regulation to ensure extra time, then scored eight more in overtime, including two layups to keep the game a one-possession contest. All told, the stocky junior scored 38 points on 19 shots in 41 minutes of action, but Senglin’s six 3-pointers, including one with 11 seconds left to send the game into overtime, were enough to lift Weber into the title game with a 83-78 win in Reno.

“We did well in the tournament and thought we had a pretty good season but we want to build on that,” Hooker said in an interview in November. “That was our biggest motivation: getting so far into the tournament, seeing post season play and wanting to go farther. That’s something we hold on to and want to surpass.”

If preseason expectations come to fruition, Hooker should be among the Big Sky’s best players again. The active, strong senior was selected as the league’s preseason Most Valuable Player during the first season the Big Sky had affiliated media vote on the award.

“It’s an honor and a blessing to know there’s the respect in the league like that but it’s something I’m not paying that much attention to,” the well-spoken Hooker said before the season. “It’s really about the team and what we are going to do this season. We are looking forward to have a great season and trying to produce something that will make history here at North Dakota.”

Quinton Hooker

Quinton Hooker

Unlike many of the other top guards in the Big Sky, Hooker’s rise has been steady rather than meteoric. The other four of the five guards on the preseason All-Big Sky team burst onto the scene instantly. Senglin and Montana State’s Tyler Hall were the Big Sky’s Freshman of the Year in their rookie seasons. Idaho State’s Ethan Telfair was the Newcomer of the Year in the Big Sky last year as a junior college transfer and Montana’s Walter Wright earned All-Big Sky honors in his first year last winter after doing the same. Idaho’s Victor Sanders came off the bench as a freshman before a breakout sophomore season that saw him average 15.9 points per game.

Hooker came to UND from Park Center High in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. As a high school senior, he averaged 23 points per game and earned the 2013 Minnesota Mr. Basketball honor as the top player in the state. As a freshman at UND, he started 14 games and averaged 4.2 points per game. As a sophomore, he began to assert himself more, averaging 12.4 points per game, including 14.6 in conference play.

As a junior, Hooker solidified himself as a potential NBA prospect by shooting 52.3 percent from the field in averaging 20.1 points per game. He was a Lou Henson Mid-Major All-American and a finalist for the Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year award. He earned first-team All-Big Sky accolades.

“He is really patient, which is sometimes rare for a guy who can score like he can,” Montana State head coach Brian Fish said before his team hosted UND last season. “And he is so efficient with his game, shooting and passing, which makes him a first-team All-Big Sky guy.”

University of North Dakota guard Quinton Hooker has earned Big Sky Conference Player of the Week/by UND Athletics

University of North Dakota guard Quinton Hooker /by UND Athletics

North Dakota has been up and down during its recently completed non-conference schedule. UND won three straight home games to begin the season, then dropped two of three at a tournament in Dayton, Ohio. A two-point win over athletic Cal State-Bakersfield came 10 days before the win over NDSU in Fargo.

The last three games have provided the stiffest challenge thus far for the Fighting Hawks. UND lost at Northern Iowa 78-70, fell to NDSU in the rematch in Grand Forks 87-70 last week and dropped its non-conference finale 84-73 at Iowa on Tuesday. UND enters conference play at 5-5.

“When you go into league play, you play the majority of the teams twice and being in the league for however many years now, seeing the same guys, you kind of get to know each other and you know their tendencies,” Hooker said. “But when you get into the Big Sky, it’s all about who wants it more. Who is going to get more stops defensively? That’s the biggest aspect when you get into conference play.”

UND returns seven of its top eight players from last season’s 17-16 squad, the only departure Adam McDermott’s transfer to UNI. Hooker has led North Dakota in scoring five times this season, but he’s also distributed well as sophomore guard Geno Crandall has emerged as a real offensive threat, boosting his scoring average to 13.8 points per outing. Sophomore Conner Avants is shooting 62.7 percent and averaging 10.3 points per game.

Quinton Hooker and Idaho State senior Ethan Telfair/ by Brooks Nuanez

Quinton Hooker and Idaho State senior Ethan Telfair/ by Brooks Nuanez

“Quinton has handled everything tremendously,” Jones said. “He’s never been a person that allows things to get to his head. What he’s allowed to do is get others involved. Teams early in our schedule have really keyed on him.”

Hooker said he wants to continue playing basketball as long as he can. It’s a goal he’s harbored since childhood, but one that has become more realistic over the last half dozen years. He credits the nurturing environment and the resources provided by Jones and North Dakota for his accelerated development.

While the NBA or playing overseas is part of the big picture, Hooker’s focus is more narrowly focused as his team prepares to open Big Sky play in Portland against PSU on December 29.

“That’s our main goal: the (NCAA) tournament,” Hooker said. “Having this core group of guys back and having this mindset that we want to be 20 (wins) and tourney. That’s coach’s motto for us and our team. Winning key games at home and on the road, but making that tournament is our ultimate goal.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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