SG ART GIANTS DUSSELDORF RELEASE

DUSSELDORF, Germany -- Augsburg University alumnus Booker Coplin '20 will continue his basketball career on the professional level in Germany, signing recently with the SG ART Giants Dusseldorf, a team in the German Bundesliga ProB league.

Coplin will be the third Auggie to play basketball on the professional level, joining Devean George '99, who played for three teams in an 11-year NBA career (1999-2010), and Dan Anderson '65, who played in the ABA from 1967-70. Greg Boone '81, who played for the Auggies from 1979-81, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a 10th-round pick in 1981, but never played in the NBA.

"With Booker, we have chosen a very versatile player," said SG ART Giants Dusseldorf coach Florian Flabb in a news release on the team's website. "He can play in several positions, and can therefore be used very variably. He is also able to attack from the outside, as well as to pose problems for smaller players under the basket. In our personal conversations, he left a lasting positive impression, and I hope that he will settle in quickly and well in his first professional season in Germany."

SG ART Giants Dusseldorf is a team in the German Bundesliga ProB league, the third division of professional basketball in Germany, below the ProA league and the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the top league. There are 24 teams in the ProB league, divided into two 12-team divisions in the north and south, with a promotion/relegation system. The regular season runs from late September to late March. The team finished 13-12 in the 2020-21 season. Teams are allowed one non-European player, with the exception of non-European players who trained in Germany for a period of time.

Coplin completed his collegiate career in 2020 as one of the best players in Augsburg men's basketball history. He was named the MIAC's Player of the Year in 2018-19 and Co-Player of the Year in 2019-20, one of just five players to earn the conference's top honor twice since the award was established in 1990. He earned All-MIAC first-team honors in both his junior and senior seasons, and was a second-team selection his sophomore year.

In 2018-19, he was named the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Division III National Player of the Year, the first time an Auggie had ever earned the honor, and earned All-America honors by both the NABC (first team) and D3hoops.com (second team). He was also named NABC Division III West District Player of the Year, as a first-team honoree to the NABC Coaches' Division III All-West District Team, and as a first-team honoree to the D3hoops.com All-West Region team. In 2019-20, Coplin earned D3hoops.com All-America men's basketball honors, in addition to being named as a first-team selection to both the D3hoops.com All-West Region and National Association of Basketball Coaches All-West District teams. He was named to the D3hoops.com All-Decade Team  (2010-2020), as one of the top 25 players to play NCAA Division III men's basketball during the past decade.

A transfer who played his first season at Wisconsin-River Falls, Coplin shined in his three Auggie campaigns (2017-20), finishing fifth in school history with 1,784 points in an Auggie uniform (83 games, 81 starts). His 21.5 Augsburg points per-game career average is third-best in school history. He finished with 668 rebounds (seventh in school history), 280 assists (fifth), 157 steals (third) and 65 blocked shots (eighth) as an Auggie. His 179 career three-pointers are fourth in school history, while his 87.2-percent free-throw percentage (361-of-414) is a school record. Including his first year at UW-River Falls (111 games, 91 starts), Coplin finished his career with 1,868 points (16.8 per-game), with 725 rebounds (6.5 per-game), 193 three-pointers, 311 assists, 178 steals and 70 blocked shots. He scored in double-figures in 73 of 81 games in his Auggie career, scored 20-plus points in 49 career games, and 30-plus points in 15 career games. He finished this season with 28 career double-doubles.

Coplin also excelled in the classroom in addition to the court. A biopsychology major with a 3.60 grade-point average, Coplin was  named to the Academic All-America Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) in 2019-20 (first team) and 2018-19 (second team). He earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors in both 2018-19 and 2019-20, and earned Academic All-MIAC and NABC Honors Court honors in both his junior and senior seasons.

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(NOTE: Story includes information taken from prior Augsburg stories on Booker Coplin.)