FARGO, N.D. – North Dakota State University head men's basketball coach David Richman honored Zach and Connor Kvalvog of Moorhead, Minn., in a private ceremony with the Kvalvog family on Tuesday.
 
Zach and Connor died in an automobile crash on June 23, 2015, as they traveled to a basketball camp in Wisconsin.
 
"It is truly our pleasure to honor Zach and Connor as members of our program, and to add the Kvalvog family to our Bison family," said Richman. "As we're searching for young men to join our program, we look for three things – good person, good student, and good athlete. We want student-athletes with high character who want to do things the right way. You can't go wrong with dedicated, caring, hard-working, driven young men like Zach and Connor."
 
Zach would have graduated from high school in May and started college in the fall of 2016. He was the starting point guard for Park Christian HS in Moorhead since his freshman season. As a sophomore, he became a team captain and helped lead the Falcons to the state tournament for the first time in school history. He surpassed 1,000 career points as a junior.
 
The Falcons went 16-10, 22-10 and 21-7 with a section championship in three seasons with Kvalvog as the starting point guard.
 
The Kvalvog brothers took part in individual basketball training with NDSU's all-time leading scorer and seven-year professional Ben Woodside.
 
"The two hardest-working kids I've ever trained were Zach and Connor," said Woodside. "Those boys were the definition of tough, hard-working, self-driven individuals. They were the type of young men you would go to war with on the basketball floor. I would have loved to be teammates with those guys. They had the right attitude, great personalities, and were flat out winners."
 
"Zach and Connor's work ethic, competitiveness and relentless effort would fit great within the culture of our program," added Richman. "Their type of winning attitude and leadership are invaluable on the court and in the locker room."
 
The Bison have recorded four consecutive 20-win seasons and four straight appearances in the championship game of the Summit League Tournament. With 93 victories over the past four seasons, NDSU will carry the most successful stretch in program history into the new Sanford Health Athletic Complex and Scheels Center on campus.