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LOGAN — Another former Utah commit is heading to Logan.
Norbert Thellisen, who signed with the Runnin' Utes basketball program a year ago before deferring play during the 2020-21 season, will now enroll at Utah State and head to Logan in time for the 2021-22 season, head coach Ryan Odom announced Tuesday.
"We are extremely excited about the addition of Norbert to our program," Odom said. "Norbert is a versatile forward with major potential and his game fits our style of play."
A native of Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, Thelissen most recently played for Heroes Den Bosch's U-22 squad, appearing in 19 games scattered over the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. He also represented his home country at the Division B FIBA U20 European Championships in Portugal during the summer of 2019, where he averaged 11.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.
The 6-foot-7 Thelissen joins Rylan Jones, the former Olympus High star who spent two seasons at Utah and transferred to Utah State, just down the road from where he played freshman basketball at Logan High. The duo joins a transfer-laden roster that includes R.J. Eytle-Rock and Brandon Horvath, who both played for Odom at UMBC, to help replace a list of departures that include Rollie Worster and Marco Anthony — two former Utah State guards that followed Craig Smith to Utah.
Former Utah State 7-footer Neemias Queta has also departed for the NBA, so the new transfers will join a group of returners that include Justin Bean, the two-time all-Mountain West forward who finished fifth in the league in rebounding a year ago in averaging 7.7 boards per game, and senior Brock Miller, the former Brighton High standout who has 841 career points during his tenure in Logan.
Bean is the only returning player in the Mountain West that averaged more than 11 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game a year ago while leading the Aggies to a third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid with the first at-large selection in three years under Smith.
