Alex Herrera had more than a birthday to celebrate when he turned 23 years old Saturday.
The 2010 Ignacio High School graduate and Fort Lewis College basketball star signed his first professional contract earlier this week with KTP-Basket, based in Kotka, Finland. The one-year deal will give the 6-foot-10, 255-pound center a chance to prove himself in FIBA Europe’s EuroChallenge, the third-tier transnational men’s professional basketball tournament in Europe.
Herrera waited to accept other offers, including from a second-tier team in Germany, as he hoped for an offer from KTP-Basket.
“I was waiting to see if KTP would offer me, because that is where I wanted to see myself go,” Herrera said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It’s a better league, and getting to play in the EuroChallenge league and travel all around to play teams in our pool, that is going to give me good exposure for years to come. I was getting nervous, but waiting for KTP worked out.”
KTP-Basket plays in the Finnish Korisliiga and has won six championships since 1957. The team won its pool last season before losing in a semifinals series of the playoffs.
It is the same team former Metro State star Brandon Jefferson, the 2014 NCAA Division II Player of the Year, starred for a season ago before transferring to Phoenix Hagen in Germany for the upcoming season.
Herrera and Jefferson share the same agency, Two Points.
“I wanted to go to a team like this that is well known, successful and has good coaches,” Herrera said. “I heard great things from Brandon and our agency.”
KTP-Basket head coach Anton Mirolybov said Jefferson helped talk him into offering Herrera a contract and said Jefferson’s word carried some weight. Jefferson described Herrera as a “walking double-double.”
“We expect him to be a threat to both ends of the field,” Mirolybov said in a news release on EuroBasket.com. “I talked to Brandon several times, and the message was that ‘take it, you will not be disappointed.’”
Herrera already is listed on EuroBasket.com as the team’s top center.
The 2014 second-team All-American and 2015 Reese’s Division II College All-Star Game selection averaged a double-double his senior season at Fort Lewis College with 23.7 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. His effort helped lead the Skyhawks to a 20-win season, as he accumulated 22 double-doubles in 29 games.
He led NCAA Division II in blocked shots with 94, good for an average of 3.2 per game. The first game of the season, he broke the college’s career blocked shots record in a tournament game played in his hometown of Ignacio, and he finished with 301 blocks. He also set a single-season record with 335 rebounds.
In 2015, Herrera also broke the Fort Lewis career-scoring record with 687 points, surpassing the former mark set in 2009 by Kirk Archibeque of Cortez. Archibeque also plays in the EuroChallenge, and his team could clash with Herrera’s if they both advance far enough into the playoffs.
Archibeque returned home last offseason and worked a bit with Herrera to teach him some of the differences between the American college game and professional basketball in Europe.
“The thing is, over in Europe, there is so much size and athletic ability in every country, especially as you move up to the top leagues in Europe. The biggest thing, playing as a big guy, is you have to have a mid-range jump shot, even back to the 3-point line,” Archibeque said in March in an email interview with The Durango Herald. “It will give you so many job opportunities, because it is very hard to just bully people in the paint. In college, it is very easy to bully people because of the size difference.
“With Alex’s hard work and dedication, he will definitely be able to translate his game over to the European style.”
Hard work and dedication was instilled in Herrera at a young age by his parents Chris and Kathy. They both played basketball at Ignacio High School, and Chris was a member of the 1988 state championship team. Kathy also went on to play at Colorado Mesa, formerly Mesa State.
Basketball was always part of the Herrera household, but even as they saw their son work harder to improve each day, the idea of Alex signing a professional contract was still hard to imagine with him coming from a town of 700 people.
“We knew what his dreams were and hoped he’d be able to do it, but I didn’t expect it,” Chris said. “Coming from a small town like Ignacio, it’s unbelievable. His hard work paid off for him, and he’s accomplished the goals he’s set little by little along the way.”
Every summer while in college, Herrera was on the road working on basketball. He spent the summer in Australia in 2014 playing with the South West Metro Pirates, and the previous two summers before that in Longmont working with teammate Cade Kloster and his father, longtime Longmont High School varsity head coach Jeff Kloster. He lived and breathed basketball every minute.
While at Fort Lewis, Herrera obtained a set of keys to Whalen Gymnasium so he could practice at all hours of the day. Instead of partaking in the nightlife in a small college setting, he was in the gym working on his craft.
“I’ve never quite seen somebody at that age be so goal-oriented and driven to do something,” Kathy said. “Every time he hit a goal, he set another one.”
“It’s been a relief off my shoulders and my wife’s shoulders knowing he was at the gym shooting instead of out partying and drinking and driving,” Chris added. “It kept him out of trouble.”
Herrera needed hard work, because he didn’t start as a basketball prodigy. He was a lanky and awkward kid on the court until his junior season.
“I only started playing team basketball in eighth grade, and I was tripping over the lines on the court,” Herrera said. “I was a goofy kid out there.”
But, in his junior season, the game started to come to Herrera. He tied the single-game blocked shots record that year with 15 against Pine River rival Bayfield before going on to set the Colorado High School Activities Association single-season blocked shots record with 197 his senior season. He finished fourth in career blocks with 311.
“It was an honor to coach a kid like that,” said Ignacio High School head coach Chris Valdez. “He’s not your typical park basketball player with attitude who talks smack. He’s a great kid from a great family who deserves everything and has worked for everything.
“To have a kid like that come through your program and be the best player in Fort Lewis history, in my opinion, and then reach the next goal of pro basketball, it’s an honor for us as a community and me as coach to know this kid from such a young age.”
Fort Lewis was the only Division II school to recruit Herrera, and he only had one other offer from a junior college. But Bob Pietrack, who at the time was the assistant coach at Fort Lewis before taking over as head coach this offseason, saw something special in him and knew he was worth a spot on the team.
Herrera didn’t disappoint, going on to win 19 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Week awards in his career, including 10 his senior season. He also won three consecutive RMAC Defensive Player of the Year honors.
By his junior year of eligibility at Fort Lewis, Herrera and the coaching staff began to believe there was more basketball ahead of Herrera after his senior season.
“We didn’t know what we had. We knew Alex had good work ethic and came from a great high school program, but he was overwhelmed at the Fort at first,” said Bob Hofman, Herrera’s head coach at Fort Lewis for five seasons. “Every year he matured, and every year he worked harder. He never took anything for granted, even his size, and he developed into a mature young man.
“I’m real excited about what his opportunities are going forward, and this will be a great experience for him to live a different culture. When he shows how willing he is to work and his willingness to be first to the gym and all that, his stock will only keep going up and up and up.”
Herrera’s regular season will last 40 games, and his team will play at least six EuroChallenge games. He will report to Finland in early September for camp, and the team’s first game is Oct. 4 against BC Nokia.
After spending a summer working out in a variety of settings, including with Team USA and recent NBA first-round draft picks Karl-Anthony Towns, the No. 1 overall pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and D’Angelo Russell, the No. 2 overall pick to the Los Angeles Lakers, Herrera knows he is ready to step in and make an immediate difference. And Chris and Kathy are ready to start putting some stamps on their passports.
“I expect to go in there and do everything I can to help win and bring a championship to the program,” Herrera said. “After being able to play against the best this summer, I know where I stand and what to work on.”
Herrera won’t be satisfied by playing one season of professional basketball. He has lofty aspirations, including perhaps playing in the United States again some day.
“I’m going to keep working in leagues like Jefferson is doing. Hopefully I will get to the top league, maybe the NBA one day. That’s a ways away, but right now I’m focused on KTP and helping them become better.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
By the numbers
Alex Herrera’s Fort Lewis Career Stats
Games played: 115
Games started: 90
Minutes: 2,978
Field Goals: 601, tied 3rd all-time
Field Goals Attempted: 1,049
Field-Goal Percentage: 57.3
Free Throws: 547, 1st all-time
Free Throws Attempted: 802
Rebounds: 937, 2nd all-time
Assists: 108
Blocked Shots: 301, 1st all-time
Points: 1,758, 2nd all-time
Points Per Game: 15.3
Herrera’s Single-Season records
Scoring: 687, 2014-15
Free-Throws: 224, 2014-15
Free-Throw Attempts: 333, 2014-15
Rebounds: 335, 2014-15
Blocked Shots: 97, 2013-14
Durango Herald
