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Guard - Ty Sabin
Ripon College
2013 - 2017

All-American selections: 2015 (honorable mention), 2016 (2nd), 2017 (1st)

All-Region selections: 2014 (Rookie of the Year), 2015 (1st), 2016 (1st), 2017 (Player of the Year)

Conference MVPs: 2015, 2016, 2017

NCAA Tournament appearances: 2017 (first round)

From the archives

• Sabin scores 50 in MWC semifinal (Feb. 2017)
• Sabin shooting for a banner (Nov. 2016)
• Sabin scores 51 including buzzer-beating three in OT (Feb. 2016)
• Sabin is Ripon's all-around threat (Dec. 2015)

What others say: "Sabin is arguably one of the greatest scorers to ever play at D3. He wasn’t just a shooter – he could score at all levels and was so consistent in his approach. He was able to meet expectations every time he took the floor." – Ryan Kane, Ripon men's basketball coach

In their own words: "Playing D3 college basketball was the greatest decision of my life. A lot of people sleep on D3 and the level of performance but every year I play pro overseas I am proud of the path I took and proud to represent D3 globally."

Where are they now: Playing professionally in Iceland. This is his fourth year as a pro – last season, he led the league in Sweden in scoring at 22 points per game.

Career synopsis: Sabin is the sort of player who generally would be highly recruited by a WIAC team or a CCIW team and would not typically end up anywhere else. Sabin was overshadowed on his high school team until a teammate got injured senior year. At that point, he ripped off a bunch of 30-point games and got the attention of the WIAC schools, but it was too late. He carried that into his Ripon career, leading the team in scoring twice in the first three games and ending his freshman season with high-scoring honors in seven of his final nine. Currently 13th all-time in Division III scoring with 2,559 points, Sabin could keep teams honest from outside, but loved to get points at the rim just as much. As his career progressed, he became increasingly central to the Ripon offense and increasingly faced double- and triple-teams from opposing defenses. His numbers never faltered as he continued to add new facets to his game. There were literally no ways to slow him down: a career 47% 3-point shooter and 86% from the free throw line, he never shied away from contact and his body was big enough to survive physical play.

"He shared a story about a moment where he couldn’t sleep one night before a game," said Kane. "So he snuck into the gym at 3 a.m. to get some shots up. He pretended to have to make three free throws to win the game after being fouled on a 3-pointer. That same day he ended up having to do that vs. Lawrence to tie the game. Of course he made all three and then dominated the OT."

Reminiscent of 2010s Kobe Bryant, Sabin often carried Ripon on his back against tremendous odds. His final career game, also his first NCAA Tournament appearance, was a 43-point effort against a strong Wash U. team, in which Sabin shot 16-for-34 from the field. It was his fourth 40-point effort on the season. More than just a volume scorer, though, Sabin presaged Aston Francis as hard-working, fundamentally sound players who found themselves in positions where their taking a lot of shots was best for the team. Sabin's skills have continued to develop post-college, where he's continued his upward trajectory in Europe and always among the top scorers in every league he's joined.