Dover-Eyota grad overcomes injury to help Minnesota State, Mankato to unbeaten start

Jan. 10—MANKATO — Brady Williams is embracing a new role and a rejuvenated attitude during his fourth season as a member of the Minnesota State University, Mankato men's basketball team.

Williams was a 2,000-point scorer in high school at Dover-Eyota. The forward has made a solid impact with the Mavericks during his career and has overcome a season-ending injury a year ago to help Minnesota State post a perfect 14-0 record so far in the 2023-24 season.

The Mavericks currently lead the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with an 8-0 record and are ranked No. 3 in the nation among Division II teams. That has the squad excited for how the season may play out.

"Just being an older team, we've all played a lot of minutes in college, and just having that experience helps us a lot," Williams said.

The 6-foot-7, 220-pound Williams had been a starter his first three seasons at Minnesota State. But he was limited a year ago after suffering a back injury.

The Mavericks now feature three transfer graduate students who are starters this season. That has given Williams a new role and he has been one of the top players off the bench.

"I'm OK with it," he said.

Coming off the bench, Williams said his approach to prepare for games has not changed this season. But as a four-year veteran, he is trying to be a more vocal leader.

"I'm trying to help as much as I can with some of the younger guys we've got so they can develop into really good players," he said. One of those young players is Goodhue's Will Opsahl, a freshman guard who has appeared in four games as a reserve.

Williams is excited to be playing at all this season; he is averaging 7.5 points and 4.2 rebounds having played in 12 of the team's 14 games. It was just 10 months ago, last March, that he underwent back surgery. He wasn't able to start playing live basketball until the beginning of September.

"Basically for three months I couldn't run and then slowly I could do some low impact training," he said.

Williams said the injury built up over time. His back started hurting around Thanksgiving time in 2022.

"I just started to get a sharp shooting pain down my leg," he said.

It turns out he had a compressed nerve in his lumbar spine. He was able to play through the pain for a while, but his back just kept getting worse. Then in an effort to compensate for his pain on the right side of his body, he suffered a badly sprained left ankle.

"At that point it just got to be too much, I was putting other parts of my body in harm's way," Williams said.

He shut down for the rest of the season and had surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

Williams said his back now feels good but he has had to work his way back into game shape while trying to improve his skills after taking about seven months off from the game.

Spending time away from the court did help Williams rejuvenate his passion for basketball.

"It definitely makes me appreciate it a lot more being out a lot last year," he said. "(I'm) just really trying to do anything for the team to win. And it's worked out pretty good this year so far."

Williams, 22, is playing his fourth season at Minnesota State, but he does have one more year of eligibility left due to a COVID season. At this point he does not intend to play next year, however. Williams will graduate in May with a nursing degree and he plans to enter the workforce.

He said he has relatives sprinkled in the tri-state area, including Iowa and Wisconsin.

Williams has a brother, Levi, who is a senior at Dover-Eyota. Levi was the

quarterback of the D-E football team

and currently a starter for the boys basketball team.

"I definitely want to stay around the Rochester area, but I'm open to moving around," he said. "I know there's going to be a lot of areas that offer jobs as a nurse. I don't think it will be super hard finding a job."

With the Mavericks off to a stellar start, Williams is looking for the team to earn a Division II NCAA Tournament berth for the first time since he joined the squad.

"I think that's our biggest goal every year I've been here," he said. "Just to get a bid or win the (NSIC) conference (championship) to make it to the NCAA Tournament. ... We've been really close, but just not quite there yet."