After a successful basketball career with the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva boys basketball team, senior guard Daxter Lee is heading to the collegiate ranks to play NCAA Division III men’s basketball for the University of Dubuque Spartans.
Lee visited the Dubuque campus before getting his senior season underway with the Panthers. The senior guard held off on making any commitments until the final season in a NRHEG jersey was over.
The recruiting process for Lee had a couple of schools around the state of Minnesota and Iowa on his radar, but once the 2023-24 season wrapped up, Lee made the decision to take his talents to Dubuque.
“It’s a beautiful campus,” Lee said. “But more importantly, I’m going to be able to learn and I’m going to be able to win there. The coaches are amazing. They know everything that I’m excited to know about. I’m really excited to learn from them and play hard.”
His initial visit to the campus was one of the moments where he knew that the Spartans would be the frontrunner to earn his commitment. Dubuque set a high bar to clear for any other schools in the mix while Lee played out his senior season. It became clear to Lee that the Spartans would be the best fit for him.
What ultimately drew Lee into Dubuque outside of loving the campus was the Spartans coaching staff and the team facilities. Though Lee and Dubuque are playing NCAA Division III basketball, the coaches and the facilities make it feel more like Division I basketball.
Lee will have a great chance at winning with the Spartans, who are coming off of a 21-7 overall season with an 11-5 record in American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) play. Dubuque lost to No. 1 seeded Nebraska Wesleyan in the A-R-C semifinals and lost to Illinois College by two points in the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Prior to the 2023-24 season, the Spartans recorded a 19-7 record in 2022-23, a 21-7 record in 2021-22 and a 14-0 record in 2020-21 while Lee helped lead the NRHEG Panthers. Once he gets to Dubuque, Lee is looking to work hard and fill one of the spots opening up with graduations in the backcourt.
“Obviously someone that’s going to work hard and I just want to soak in every little thing that they have,” Lee said of what the Spartans are getting with his commitment. “I just want to learn and soak in everything they’ll have for me. Working hard and trying to be a leader every day. It’s going to be difficult, but that’s college basketball. It’s not going to be easy, so I know that I have to grind every day and that’s what I’m going to do.”
On the academic side, Lee is planning on majoring in business and minoring in communications with an idea of starting his own business in the future.
Over the course of Lee’s playing career with the Panthers, the NRHEG guard accumulated two Second Team All-Conference selections as a junior and senior, while being an All-Conference Honorable Mention as a sophomore by the Gopher Conference.
Lee finished as NRHEG’s second leading scorer this year with 240 points in only 15 games for 16.0 points per game. As a junior, he led the Panthers in scoring with 499 points in 27 games for 18.5 PPG. He scored 346 points in 25 games for 13.8 PPG as a sophomore with a highlight being a 40-point, 10 3-pointer game in a 78-42 win over Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton.
Outside of his ability to score the ball and run things on the court, Lee is a competitor at heart and is more than ready to learn whenever he has the chance to grow. The drive to win and be the best he can is what helps fuel his passion for playing basketball.
“It’s one of those things where it’s competitive-ness,” Lee said. “I want something that I can go at it every single day as hard as I can and see where I can get. I wasn’t able to play baseball this year, so I’m doing golf. So everything I’m doing is 100% golf. I’m still coming in here every morning and shooting and stuff, but with golf, I’m on the golf course until 8 p.m. It’s one of those passion things and competitive things where you want to win so bad and that’s what I really want.”
Lee has been dealing with a bone contusion and a sprained PCL in his knee, which has impacted his ability to run and jump. Normally, Lee would be a standout on the diamond with the NRHEG baseball team, but he made the switch to the boys golf team to close out his senior year.
Playing golf gives him the opportunity to remain the same kind of competitor that he is, while still being able to rest his body for his upcoming freshman season at Dubuque. In the meantime, Lee is hoping to reach the MSHSL state golf tournament to close out his time as a Panther.
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