Ian Raasch honored to be a NAIA All-American

WINONA LAKE — Grace College men’s basketball is on a historic run.

The Lancers have won 29-or-more games in a season and have reached the NAIA Nationals Elite Eight in four consecutive seasons with a Final Four berth in 2023-24. That was the same season that Ian Raasch made his collegiate debut following a star-studded career at NorthWood High School.

Two years later, and Raasch is a NAIA First Team All-American. He’s the third-straight Lancer to win the prestigious honor.

“Coach [Scott] Moore told me; that was the first time that I had heard about it,” Raasch said. “I had given him a phone call, it had nothing to do about the award and we were chatting and then he said that he had found out that I was an All-American and just wanted to congratulate me. That was the first time I had heard about it, so it was pretty cool.”

The junior forward helped Grace to a 31-4 record this winter and got the Lancers back to the Elite Eight. With no seniors on the team, Raasch was one of just two upperclassmen to play in Grace’s postseason loss to Ave Maria University. The former Panther scored 11 points in the game.

Raasch averaged 14.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists and started in all 33 games he played this season. He was still surprised about the postseason honor.

“No,” he said when asked if he expected to be named a NAIA All-American. “I mean, it was on my radar that I could potentially be on that list, but yeah, I hadn’t put much thought into it to be honest. It was definitely a cool moment and I definitely wasn’t expecting it.”

Raasch played with past NAIA First Team All-Americans in the past. Elijah Malone earned the honor at Grace during Raasch’s freshman year and Ian Scott earned it following the 2024-25 season.

Malone eventually made the transfer to the University of Colorado and Scott transferred to Indiana State. With that in mind, is Raasch thinking about also making the Division I jump?

“Yeah, I think I’ll see where the cards fall and what happens after this next year, but I’m very open to doing that as well [but] I’ll be at Grace,” he said.

The soon-to-be senior says he’ll be back playing for the Lancers again this fall and would potentially try to go D1 after the 2026-27 NAIA season.

“I’m very excited,” Raasch said. “It’s pretty rare to have a team with no seniors, let alone, a team of our caliber. So just being able to run it back with the same 15 guys will be a lot of fun and one that I’m really looking forward to.”

Raasch’s return means the former NorthWood Panther will be back to playing with his brother for at least one more year — something the duo only got to do once in Nappanee.

Ian’s younger brother Tyler finished his freshman year up at Grace this past winter. He started in the Elite Eight and scored four points in just 15 minutes. In his rookie season, the younger Raasch averaged 10.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks.

“It was awesome,” Ian Raasch said about being teammates alongside his brother. “We got to play one year in high school together and it was a blast. I seriously notice that when we’re playing there’s a level of chemistry there just from the years growing up together and playing against and with each other. It’s a lot of fun not only playing but having him here at Grace.”

“For him specifically, the game is much more suited for college compared to high school,” Raasch said. “He’s a big, physical guy and sometimes that doesn’t get rewarded in high school. It’s refed different in college and so that came naturally from him.”

Up next for Raasch is offseason workouts and lifts to continue his growth at the college level. He’s also awaiting the end-of-season player evaluation, but he said he knows where he can still get better. That would be at the 3-point line and in the weightroom, he lists.

Then, he’ll be back on the hardwood for the Lancers again.