NAMPA, Idaho – To understand Sam Roth's love of basketball, you must first start with the Court of Dreams.

The Northwest Nazarene junior grew up near his family's farm in Silverton, Ore. On the farm is a basketball court built by his uncles, complete with portable baskets with glass backboards and lights, tucked away in the middle of berry fields. An homage to the baseball movie "Field of Dreams."

"All of my cousins grew up in the same area, so we got together in the summers and played a lot of basketball out there," he said. "My dad, two brothers and I started a little series of two-on-two games that became a family tradition. The farm is kind of that central location and everyone worked on it at some point in their lives."

All the Farm Ball  paid off for the extended Roth family, who sent four basketball-playing boys to George Fox University, one to Corban University, one to Westmont College and one to NNU.

"We were around basketball all the time," said Toby Roth, Sam's older brother who played at Corban. "It was almost a family thing as much as a fun thing. It was what we loved to do."

The family's farm, G&C Farms named for Sam's grandparents Gerald and Carolyn, who started it. It is now run by four of his uncles. It features 200 acres of berries and around 1,000 acres of grass seed and hazelnuts, among other things.

Roth grew up working on the farm. His chores included anything from mowing to irrigation to watering the fields to weeding and picking the berries in the morning for their fresh market store.

As he's gotten older, he's graduated to driving a berry picking machine in the overnight hours.

"There are five people on one machine," Roth said. "When you are on your night, you and four people go pick the berries. During the day when it is hot, berries bruise easier. At night, they fall off the bush when it is cooler."

All of the hard work on the farm has helped mold Roth into who he is today – a glue guy for the Nighthawks, who does all the little things right.

"After spending a day and a half with him on his farm, I called my wife and I told her I think this will be one of my favorite kids to coach," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "Just because you could tell his work ethic, his maturity and the way he treated people ­­­– he is a pretty special young man."

Roth came in as an excellent defender, but someone who struggled with the offensive speed of the game at the NCAA Division II level. Former coach Scott Flemming gave him the opportunity to redshirt and he took it.

It has paid off handsomely.

"It was very hard initially," he said. "The first couple of games it was weighing on me, but I kept a pretty positive attitude. After a month you get used to it and it's not a big deal."

As a redshirt freshman last year, he steadily increased his playing time as the season wore on, eventually starting 15 of the team's 26 games.

Roth averaged 6.2 points per game, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists.

While he may not start as much this year, he will still be a significant factor in the success the of the Nighthawks.

And a big part of that is who he is as a person as much as his skill on the court. Stuff he learned from playing and working on the farm.

"His maturity and his character allows him to get better at basketball," Rush said. "One, he has the work ethic to say, 'I'm not good at this aspect of my game.' And then works to get better at it. Two, he has the maturity to admit that he is not good at everything. And three he has the responsibility of finding time to make sure he gets better.

"That ability to manage his time and really improve as a basketball player is rare."

But when you are used to working night shifts on the farm, then playing ball at the local high school at 6:30 a.m. three times a week and getting in three-on-three games with your family every summer evening, well, juggling school and basketball doesn't seem so bad.

"Playing college basketball was always a dream," he said. "I didn't know what level or where, but I knew I was good enough. It has to be fun for me and it has been thus far."