After one year at Division I Davidson College, Austin grad Joe Aase is headed back to Minnesota.

Aase will transfer to Division II Minnesota State-Mankato next season and play men’s basketball for the Mavericks.

Minnesota State was the first team to offer a scholarship to Aase when they offered him a full ride in September of his junior year and now Aase going to take them up on that offer for his last three years of eligibility.

According to Joe’s dad, Lee Aase, he is heading to MSU because Davidson was asking its basketball players to stay on campus for another month and a half over the summer.

“He’s been there since August and he just figured its better to be ninety miles from Austin instead of 1,000 miles,” Lee Aase said. “We kept a good relationship with Mankato and they have a strong team.”

Joe Aase had also considered transferring to Winona State, but he eventually chose the Mavericks, who went 30-5 overall last season. Minnesota State is one of the top DII teams in the country and they will return four staters from last year’s team.

Aase will likely have an opportunity to play more with the Mavericks than he did at Davison, where he played in 24 games, but logged in just 152 minutes on the season this past year.

Since he is going from DI to DII, Aase will not have to sit out a year and he will be able to play for Minnesota State next season.

The Mavericks play in the same conference as the University of Sioux Falls, which means that

Aase will get a chance to play against his former Packer teammates Zach Wessels and Tom Aase quite a bit over the next three seasons.