ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- To say Drew Buslee feels good about her decision to transfer to the College of Saint Benedict would be dramatically underselling her enthusiasm level.
 
So let's let the 5-foot-9 sophomore point guard on the Bennie basketball team express her zeal in her own words.
 
"Amazing, that's the only way I can describe it," Buslee said with excitement evident in her voice. "The girls here have been so kind and welcoming. The campus is beautiful. The coaches are great, my professors are great, the food is great. Everything here is over the top. I'm beyond happy. I'm 200 percent sure I made the right call. I love it here so much."
 
Her coaches and teammates are just as thrilled to have her.

 

The Eagan High School graduate already leads the team in scoring with a 16.1 points-per-game average. She also has a team-best 33 steals (8th in NCAA DIII), 18 assists and ranks third in rebounding with an average of 4.7 per contest.
 
Buslee has been CSB's leading scorer in six of the first nine games and has reached double figures seven times (and over 20 points on three occasions) as the Bennies have gotten off to a 6-3 start (1-1 MIAC). She also earned the CSB Tipoff Tournament MVP after leading CSB to a pair of season-opening wins.
 
Heading into her team's home matchup against Gustavus (4-2), scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday (Dec. 10) at Claire Lynch Hall, she ranks sixth in the MIAC scoring race.
 
"I thought she'd be able to come in and help us immediately, but the impact she's had has been significant," CSB coach Mike Durbin said. "It starts with her being such a competitive player. She has a great deal of self-confidence and she blends into our offense really well – in part because she knows her own skill set. She knows what she wants to do and she has the talent to make it happen."
 
Buslee comes by that athleticism naturally. Her father Tom was an All-American wide receiver at St. Olaf, who still holds the single-season school record for receiving yards, and her mother Alexia was a multi-time All-MIAC softball standout for the Oles.
 
Her uncle Henry was a four-year starter in basketball at St. Olaf, and her twin brother Max is currently playing at Gustavus Adolphus.
 
"We're pretty competitive," Buslee said of her sibling. "When we were little, I used to beat him (at one-on-one) all the time because I was bigger. By the time we got to high school, he started beating me. But we had some battles."
 
Buslee originally chose to play at Division II University of Sioux Falls, where she saw action in 13 games as a first-year last season. But she was looking for something different in her college experience, and the more she discovered about CSB, the more sold she became.
 
"I'd heard great things about the program and Mike as a coach," she said. "Alums I talked to told me how great their experience here was, and that they thought I'd be happy here too. "I talked to (current) players like Emily Crandall and Megan Morgan, and the way they talked about the team and school was awesome. Everyone seemed so nice. It became clear this is where I wanted to be."
 
Buslee had the chance to play summer league basketball with her new teammates in Minneapolis but still didn't know exactly what to expect until practice opened in October.
 
"I thought I might have a bigger role than I did (at Sioux Falls), but I was going to have to work hard to get on the court," she said. "After the first practice, though, I knew this was a great fit. Everyone was so welcoming that it made it easy to adjust. And Mike runs a flexible offense that lets everyone do what they're good at. It's more guard-oriented and it seemed to suit me pretty well."
 
Buslee is a biology major who hopes to eventually pursue a career in the human services field. It's a path she already has some experience with, having worked the past three years at a group home for adults with disabilities where her mother works as an occupational therapist.
 
"I've gotten so much from that experience that it's hard to even explain," she said. "I've learned how to problem-solve and communicate better. The people I've worked with have been so inspiring, and I've realized how thankful I am to be able to have what I have and do what I do. There are people dealing with a lot worse than anything that might be bothering me on a given day."
 
That positive attitude carries over to the court, where she feels good about the way her team has played so far.
 
"We've gotten off to a really good start," she said. "The chemistry on this team is so strong. Everybody is playing together. We still have a lot of room to improve, but I'm happy about the way the season is going."