BOZEMAN — The Montana State Bobcats men’s basketball team announced the signing of a big recruit on Wednesday, and 7-foot-3 Jasper Reinalda gives MSU some much-needed size.
“Montana State was and is the best option for me," Reinalda said. "They really use their bigs. They got a good up-and-coming coach. Their program really focuses on skill development, so I think that is going to be great for me.”
Reinalda was mainly recruited by assistant coach Chris Haslam, who has recruited other players with European ties such as Jubrile Belo and Harald Frey.
“That was just really nice for me to have somebody who understands the European system and knows what that’s all about," Reinalda said.
Reinalda graduated from Corvallis High School in Oregon last year. With dual citizenship in the Netherlands, he decided to spend a post-graduate year for the 2020-21 season playing at Donar Academy in the city of Groningen.
“I think I grew a lot as a person," he said. "Just kind of figuring how I want to live my life outside of my paternal home and just getting in my own habits and figuring out how I want to spend my free time and stuff like that, figuring out the person I want to be.”
With the extra year, the big man was able to refine his game while playing against guys who were similar in size, which he wasn’t able to do in Oregon.
“What I really worked on over there is just footwork, coming off of screens well, rolling, cutting and how to post up against bigger guys," Reinalda said. "That was really one thing that I lacked in high school was playing against bigs.”
Reinalda is excited to continue his family's legacy. His father, Johan, is 7-foot-1 and played at Oregon State in the late 1980s.
“We’ve been really training together for quite a long time," Jasper said. "He’s always been good on teaching me the fundamentals and really focusing on the basic little things, and having somebody else to go up against, bang up against a big body in the gym is really useful for me.”
After going against big men in the Netherlands, Reinalda is excited to learn from Montana State big man Jubrile Belo.
“Jubrile is a very dominant post player and I think I can learn a lot from him now that he’s decided to come back for an extra two years," Reinalda said. "I’m really looking forward to getting practice against him every single day and getting that competition against an elite-level big.”
Reinalda actually has a connection with another incoming Bobcat freshman, Missoula Sentinel’s Alex Germer.
“I’m excited to meet up with Alex Germer again," said Reinalda. "We actually met a couple summers ago at Oregon State’s individual elite camp. We were on the same little mini-team there for the weekend.”
Reinalda begins classes on May 10 at Montana State. If fans see him out in town, they're encouraged to say hi, because he enjoys meeting new people.
