Wait is finally over as Hildebrandt makes his NCAA debut

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This article was published 13/12/2024 (297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six weeks can seem like a long time in the life of a college basketball player.

For Simon Hildebrandt, who transferred from Canada to North Carolina in August to pursue his dream of playing NCAA Division I hoops, a six-week layoff forced by an injury seemed more like an eternity.

Fortunately for the 21-year-old Winnipegger, the wait is over now.

Hildebrandt, sidelined since late October with a stress fracture in his left foot, recently made his debut for the High Point University Panthers, playing on Dec. 3 against UNC Greensboro and Dec. 6 against the University of North Texas.

“It was definitely good to be back,” said Hildebrandt by phone from High Point, N.C., Friday. “I really felt like I needed to kind of get my legs back under me a little bit. You can do all the running you want — I just feel like in that first game, you always feel it. It felt good but I know that I can play a lot better and I felt like I played a lot better in the second game.”

The former University of Manitoba star forward scored five points and added an assist in a 12-minute stint during High Point’s 72-68 road loss to UNC Greensboro and doubled in his playing time three days later and posted 11 points, seven rebounds and two assists in a 76-71 win over visiting North Texas.

“He’s not in great shape yet, but he did the best he could,” said HPU head coach Alan Huss. “We have a lot of resources here — he was on the underwater treadmill (during rehab) and he was on the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill every day, but it’s just not the same as playing basketball. I think he did the best he could to keep his heart in good condition, but it’s just not quite the same as the ruggedness of basketball. But he’s done well physically. He’s a terrific player. As he rounds into form, he’ll will be one of our best players.”

The Panthers are 9-2 in pre-season and don’t open their Big South Conference regular season until Jan. 2 against Radford University.

Huss has big expectations for Hildebrandt, who was a major piece of an off-season rebuild at HPU.

“What’s been difficult for him, I think, was he was naturally going to kind of slot into a leadership role for us,” said Huss. “It’s been difficult for him to do that with him being out. I think we’re really missing that, but I think he really got the respect of everyone in our program.”

Hildebrandt said his two summer seasons spent with the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Winnipeg Sea Bears were crucial to his development. The high level of play in the NCAA comes as no surprise.

“The CEBL helped me with some of the physicality stuff and getting ready for it and I’ve always been a pretty big college basketball fan, so I’ve watched a ton of college basketball on TV my whole life,” said Hildebrandt.

“But I would say the level of physicality is a more than U Sports. The top U Sports teams, like your UVics and Carletons of the past, those top teams are very good and could compete with a lot of Division 1 schools. The biggest difference is all these (NCAA) teams have a couple of super athletic guys.”

Hildebrandt marvels at the amount of talent on his team.

“Not that this thing really matters but the other day we were named pretty large pre-season favourites to win the conference,” said Hildebrandt. “Last year, before I got here, they were the No. 1 seed in the Big South going into the conference tournament and then they got upset in the semifinals.”

Led by senior point guard Bobby Pettiford and senior forward Terry Anderson, the Panthers received 17 of 18 first-place votes in a pre-season poll of Big South coaches and media representatives.

The conference champion will earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

“We have so much talent,” said Hildebrandt. “We have 14 guys that can all contribute easily and we have so many guys that are probably not going to play a lot. They could play huge minutes with other teams in our conference — that’s how loaded we are. I don’t think there’s even a need for me to ever play 30 minutes on this team.”

HPU’s not-so-secret weapon is sophomore centre Juslin Bodo Bodo, a towering shot-blocker from Cameroon who was the conference’s defensive player of the year in 2023-24.

“He’s this big 7-foot guy — there’s nothing like him in U Sports,” said Hildebrandt.

Huss said the 6-9 Hildebrandt should quickly find his groove.

“He’s very comfortable playing on the perimeter and that we’ve kind of focused on that,” said Huss, whose team faces Appalachian State in a neutral site game Saturday afternoon. “But as he gets a little bit more acclimated when he has the right matchups, we’ll slice him into the post and use him in some of those situations as well.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca