Apr. 16, 2007

BEMIDJI, Minn. -- Bemidji State University head men's basketball coach Matt Bowen today announced that Foley High School's Tyler Wruck has signed a National Letter of Intent to attend BSU. He will continue his academic and athletic careers at Bemidji State beginning in the fall of 2007.

"We are excited about Tyler because I am not sure too many people know about him," commented Bowen of the 6-foot-5 wing that battled injuries during his junior and senior seasons. "He broke his hand and that disrupted his entire senior season, but when I watched him in the fall I was very, very impressed because he plays the type of game I want to play. Bowen added, "He is solid fundamentally, learned from a very good coach in Chris Lewis and I think he is going to help us a lot."

"They showed the most interest," said Wruck on his reasoning for choosing BSU. ""The coaching staff called before anyone else and were consistent."

"It seemed like it would be a good chance to go and play right away," Wruck said. "I'd like to go up there and help them turn the program around."

Wruck commits to Bemidji State after a standout career at Foley High School. The talented scorer and versatile player finished his prep career with 837 points despite missing a third of his senior season and a good chunk of his junior campaign due to injuries.

The Foley, Minn. native averaged 16.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game as a senior while helping to lead his Flacons to an 18-8 overall record in 2006-07. In the nine games Wruck missed due to a broken bone in his shooting hand, the team was 5-4. Despite admitting he was not 100 percent in his stretch run comeback, in mid-February, Wruck posted a career-high 32 points in a come-form-behind Rum River Conference victory over Pine City.

The son of Scott Wruck and Chris Wruck was also a regular contributor as a wide receiver on the FHS football team and has been active on the AAU basketball circuit where he faced each of the Beavers' other three signees.

Wruck joins Cass Lake-Bena High School standout Brady Fairbanks, Patrick Cassidy, who recently completed his high school playing career at St. Bernard's, and Andover High School's Jimmy Johnson in Bowen's first full recruiting class at BSU. Fairbanks singed an NLI April 11th while Cassidy and Johnson made their intentions to attend Bemidji State formal late last week.

Bemidji State University, located in Bemidji, Minn., is a member of NCAA Division II and competes in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Beavers are coming off a season in which they were 5-23 overall and posted 5-13 record in NSIC play. Entering his second season at BSU, Bowen looks to return 10 players from his 2006-07 roster.

--bsu--