Harald Frey has been playing alongside grown men for quite some time. Over the last few years, he’s seen many leave Norway and travel across the world in pursuit of basketball and education.
Now it’s Frey’s turn. The 18-year-old native of Oslo, Norway has given his verbal commitment to sign with the Montana State men’s basketball team next season.
“It has always been a dream of mine,” Frey said on Thursday afternoon of last week, which was actually Thursday night due to the eight-hour time difference. “Of course when I started out when I was really young, I didn’t think of America. I just played basketball because I loved it of course. But then, Norway is really small so everyone knows everyone and you hear of all these guys going over seas and it became an inspiration. I thought maybe it was possible. It’s great to get a free education and it’s an awesome opportunity.”
Frey is a 6-foot-1, 185-pound left-handed point guard with a solid skill set. Most scouting reports praise his excellent vision, his ability to control the tempo of the game and his shooting skill. Frey has spent the last few seasons playing for Baerum Basketball. Last season, he averaged 13.3 points in 35 minutes per game. He dished out 3.5 assists and shot 51 percent from the field, including 34.6 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
Frey played last season alongside former Montana State standout Flavien Davis, an honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference player at MSU as a senior two winters ago. Davis averaged 15.6 points per game for Baerum. Frey also played behind Stian Mjos, one of Norway’s top point guards.
“Of course playing with older men is a lot more physicality, of course they are bigger and stronger and longer,” Frey said. “But also the mental aspect of the game, that has helped me a lot. I played behind a really good point guard, Stian Mjos, and I think he’s the best point guard in Norway. He’s so smart and he’s helped me understand the game better.”
This season, Frey will play for the Centrum Tigers, a team in Norway’s top league based in central Oslo, the country’s capital that’s home to more than 650,000. Centrum is the only team in Norway’s top league with exclusively Norwegian players. Frey said his final year playing in his home country will help him develop the aspects of his game that have already helped him earn a Division I scholarship.
“I have a pretty good IQ and I can read a game well,” Frey said. “I’m a pretty good shooter. I’m good at finding my teammates in the right spots. You can call me a traditional point guard. I try to run the team. When I get used to the players I play with, I get pretty vocal which I think is essential if you’re a point guard. And I think I’m a pretty good teammate.”
Frey
Frey spent the weekend in Bozeman earlier this month, touring around the MSU campus and the Gallatin Valley. He attended his first live football game as MSU defeated Division II Fort Lewis 45-14 on September 3. Spending time in Bozeman was one of the biggest things that helped him commit. Frey made a visit to Drake in Des Moines on his way back to Norway. He planned on visiting Miami of Ohio but the Redhawks received a verbal commitment from point guard Braxton Beverley before Frey made it to campus. He also had an offer from the New Jersey Institute of Technology but cancelled that visit after committing to Montana State.
“At first, before I came over, I did not know a whole lot about Montana so I tried to not have any thoughts before hand but I thought it was going to be really small,” Frey said. “Then I came there and it was just breathtaking, the view, the mountains, the fresh air, the Big Sky. The campus was awesome. The coach brought us to the (football) game and the fan support was awesome. The facilities were awesome and the players, I loved the players too. There weren’t really any negatives.”
Frey first heard from Montana State assistant Chris Haslam, a native of the United Kingdom who’s heavily recruiting overseas for MSU head coach Brian Fish. Haslam first saw Frey play for the Norwegian national team at the European U18 Championships last summer where Frey piled up 16.6 points per game to lead the Norwegian squad. Haslam will make a visit to Oslo to see Frey later this week.
Frey said he loved the coaching staff and said Fish’s experience at the high-major level was a big selling point. He also liked Montana State’s message of the whole student athlete experience with an emphasis on acclimating to the campus community.
“Coach Fish, I loved his ideas,” Frey said. “He doesn’t want the players to just play basketball and sit in their dorms. He wants them to get out and see other people, other students, help in the society in the community.
“I also like their playing style. They play sort of European, a lot of motion, spread offense, a lot of spacing. They really care about the players. It’s not just, ‘hey, we want to be good in basketball.’ They also care about the person. That was important to me. The friendships, that goes deeper than basketball.”
Frey’s father accompanied him to Bozeman. When they left, they sat down and made a list of pros and cons. All things pointed to Frey wanting to become a Bobcat.
“There really wasn’t any big cons,” Frey said. “It was all positive. My dad had no problem sending me here because he knows I’ll be taken care of and he knows I’ll have a good time. Of course, mom wants me home but she’s excited for me too.
“Of course I’m nervous. I have to travel across the globe. I’m so far away from friends. But I thought if I wanted to go this far, I better not have any regrets coming there. That’s what I felt like at Montana State.”
