D’Andre Dennis moving on to play basketball at Dakota Wesleyan

McCook Community College's D'Andre Dennis signed his letter of intent Wednesday to continue playing basketball at Dakota Wesleyan University, an NAIA school in Mitchell, S.D.

"This is a special one for me because I spent the first eight years of my actual coaching duties up in Mitchell as a graduate assistant and associate head coach," said MCC Coach Jacob Brandl. "Knowing Coach Matt Wilbur as close as I do with a lot of family and a lot of friends, it's special that one of my guys can go play up there and contribute."

Dennis, 6-5 forward from Porter Ridge High School in Charlotte, N.C., said he was impressed with the level of continued interest the school showed in him. While he was considering several schools after visiting the campus in Mitchell, he felt like it was the right fit.

"It's a lot bigger than McCook but still has a small-town feel – you still get that family feel but you have more ways to connect with the community," he said.

"I know he's going to get taken care of up there and get a chance to play right away. Their system fits his game perfect. He's going to be able to play multiple positions," Brandl said. "He can shoot the basketball, guys that can play motion and guard and defend play in these different areas do well in that style.

Dennis played in 30 games this season for MCC, starting 20 of them. He averaged 7.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. He shot 36.2 percent from the field, made 34.8 percent of his 3-point attempts and was a 69.6 percent shooter from the free-throw line.

He had seven games scoring in double-digits with a season-high of 20 coming at home Feb. 5 against Northeastern Junior College.

He said one of his standout memories came in late November when the team traveled to Twin Falls, Idaho to take on No. 23 College of Southern Idaho. While the team was without Coach Brandl and several other players.

"The way our team pulled together that night was one of the best feelings I had," he said. Dennis came off the bench that game to score 18 points and went six-for-10 from the field.

"This is the best team I've been a part of, talent-wise and off the court, we all hang out together, we don't ever have any issues, if we do, we talk about, solve it," he said. "And also they pushed me to be better, they didn't take it easy on me even when I was coming off an injury and I praise them for that because I really needed that."

Dennis is a Business Management major with hopes to operate his own gym to give athletes all the resources they need from nutrition and workouts to training and recovery.

He said one lasting image he will take with him is that of his MCC coach on the sidelines in the heat of the game.

"You can tell he really cares about what he's doing and really cares about his guys on the court, "Dennis said. "Whether it's good or bad, you're going to know how he feels about it and that's the best quality you can have as a coach."