When Paige Paulsen, the NIU basketball team’s latest signee, won the Mr. Basketball Award as the top player in South Dakota, it was an unusually tough honor to take.

“It’s kind of bittersweet because of what happened to my brother,” Paulsen said.

In the summer of 1999, Paige’s brother Derek was killed in a car accident going into his senior year. At the time, Derek was a hot prospect in recruiting circles being courted by Michigan State and Northwestern, and he was considered a favorite for the award that winded up in Paige’s hands this year – South Dakota’s Mr. Basketball Award.

“Because of what happened [with my brother] I’ve worked a lot harder in basketball,” said Paige, a 6-foot-7 combo forward. “The reason why I’m here today is because he was always in the gym and I’d be with him. Whether he wanted me to come along or not I was always tagging along.”

With a relationship that was described by “always non-serious and joking around,” Paige found it only natural for a tattoo in memory of his brother. Resting on his left shoulder blade, the body art is of Derek’s jersey No. 25 surrounded by a spider web.

“It is just kind of a little reminder of Derek,” said Paige, a three-time all-state player. “He hated spiders, so it was just kind of a little joke because we were never really serious with each other.”

Paige did, however, take the news of his brother’s death extremely serious.

“I didn’t open up to anyone really,” he said.

It was the Custer High School gymnasium he said that kept his sanity when dealing with the situation. With his dad the assistant varsity coach, the key to the gym was always in Paige’s immediate grasp.

Retreating to the gymnasium and stroking his effortless-looking three-point shot and pounding the ball into the hollowed ground is what made Paige feel at ease.

“That was one of the things that helped me through [Derek’s death],” he said. “I just kind of went to the court, shot around and let all my emotions out there.”

Before his death, Derek helped Custer to a state championship his sophomore year on a game-winning shot and a third-place finish his junior year.

Paige, a member of the varsity since his eighth grade year, followed up the tradition that Derek set. Averaging 24.5 points per game, 11 rebounds and five assists a game, Paige brought his team to the championship game his junior and senior year. His team won it all his junior year, but came up short in 2003.

“He gives us that inside guy that can step out and hit threes,” NIU coach Rob Judson said.

Paige’s 14-hour change of address from Custer to DeKalb, however, almost didn’t happen.

In the early fall signing period of 2002, Paige signed a national letter of intent to play at Lamar University of the Southland Conference in Texas. After Lamar fired Mike Dean to bring in Billy Tubbs as the head coach, Paige knew Lamar was not the place for his future. He was eventually let out of his binding letter of commitment because of the change of coaches.

“[Tubbs] wanted me to stay, but I just didn’t feel right,” Paige said. “They play more up and down and aren’t really into position players like I am. I play the thinking man’s game and they are just all about athletic players; the run and gun style.”

While NIU was looking for someone to fill the void left by the departure of Julian McElroy (disciplinary reasons), Judson heard of Paige’s availability while attending the NCAA Final Four.

“I had known Paige’s family from when I was at Illinois,” said Judson, who recruited South Dakota products Jeff Boschee (Kansas) and Jared Reiner (Iowa) for the Illini.

When the NIU coaching staff offered Paige a scholarship and showed him all NIU had to offer, he realized that a negative could be turned into a positive.

“This is a lot smaller and a lot better conference,” said Paige, who now will be closer to family in Michigan. “Northern Illinois turned out to be a lot better situation all the way around. NIU is definitely better than Lamar with the Convo Center. Not to many places are going to have a place like that.”

As Paige gets prepared for the start of his college career, he knows his brother is looking down on him.

“He’s probably smiling a little bit,” Paige said. “I’m sure he’s happy for me.”