NDSU men’s basketball player Brett Winkelman, from Morris, Minn., has been selected as a 2008-09 Summit League Scholar-Athlete of the Year in a vote of the league’s faculty athletic representatives. The Summit League Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award is the most prestigious individual honor given by the league.
A recent recipient of an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, Winkelman was named ESPN The Magazine’s 2008-09 Academic All-American of the Year for Division I Men’s Basketball. He compiled a 3.876 cumulative grade-point average as an industrial engineering and management major and business administration minor and earned dean’s List recognition his entire academic career. Winkelman was a three-time Academic All-American and two-time Summit League Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while also serving two years on The Summit League’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council and as NDSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council vice president. He also was active in the NDSU and Fargo-Moorhead community through various community service activities including Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Character Counts program, sandbagging for Fargo flood victims and helping at a Fargo homeless shelter.
Winkelman ranked second in The Summit League, 42nd nationally with 18.7 points per game, and placed third in the league with 7.4 rebounds per contest during the 2008-09 season. He earned first team All-Summit League honors and was named to the All-Tournament Team while helping the Bison claim both the regular season championship and Summit League Tournament titles and first NCAA Tournament berth. Winkelman was a finalist for the 2009 Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award, honoring outstanding excellence and character in college basketball. In 2007-08, Winkelman was a first team All-Summit League performer and earned a pair of player of the week honors during NDSU’s first season in the league. NDSU’s all-time leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, Winkelman averaged 16.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game while making 118 starts during his career.
The Summit League is comprised of 10 member institutions – Centenary College of Louisiana, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, NDSU, Oakland University, Oral Roberts University, South Dakota State University, Southern Utah University and Western Illinois University. The league offers championships in 19 sports.
