Former UND women’s basketball standout Madi Buck took some time to finish school and delay her professional basketball career.
Now, she’s ready to give pro hoops a shot.
Buck, the 2014 Big Sky Conference Player of the Year, has signed a professional contract to play with the Chemnitz ChemCats of Germany.
“Madi's body of work has given her a unique situation where hard work meets opportunity to excel,” UND head coach Travis Brewster said. “She was faced with some tough mature choices at the end of her collegiate career and she worked through them. I had a feeling that Madi would want to try to play professionally after graduating. Madi has been working out and playing pick-up with the team, also she has been doing individual skill sessions on her own and individual workouts with me and the staff. She will definitely be ready for the challenge to play.”
Buck led North Dakota to its first-ever league regular season co-championship, a conference tournament title and a berth in the NCAA Division I tournament in her senior season.
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She earned the first All-America honor for UND in its Division I era (honorable mention), scoring a team-high 16 points per game while adding 7.3 rebounds. She was a unanimous selection to the all-Big Sky Conference first team and was also named to the conference's postseason all-tournament team. The Bismarck native notched over 1,200 points and 750 rebounds for her career.
Her new head coach, Amanda Davidson, knew that despite being out of competitive basketball for a year, Buck was worth any risk.
"It was definitely something we thought about, that Madi sat out one season," Davidson said. "The one thing that came to mind that she is a mature person and determined to work till the end to finish things. This showed by her staying and finishing school before moving towards her career with basketball. This is a reason I contacted Madi and her college coach. Both shared how she still trained with her college team and kept working on her game throughout that last year of school.
“This also shows how determined she is to get better. It takes a lot to continue to work out and practice when you don't get rewarded with playing in the games. This is the type of player I wanted. One who is disciplined, hard worker, and wants to continue to improve. To me sitting out one year is different if you aren't doing anything or if you are still fighting to become better.”
Davidson, who played at the University of Indianapolis (2001-05), owns a lengthy professional career of her own overseas, including the last two seasons with Chemnitz. She averaged over 10 points per game in her two seasons with the ChemCats and was named the head coach for the 2015-16 campaign.
Chemnitz plays in one the highest regarded leagues in Germany, the DBBL.
