While WBR was on summer hiatus to launch a complete redesign of the website (which looks fresh, don’t you think?), several Creighton men’s basketball players were wrapping up a summer of competing internationally. Here’s a look at what they were up to!
Ryan Nembhard
The Big East’s Freshman of the Year averaged 11.3 points and a team-leading 4.4 assists per game and won the league’s “Freshman of the Week” honors six times before his season ended on February 23 with a wrist injury. He returned to competitive hoops on July 5 as a member of Canada Basketball’s Men’s U23 National Team, where he competed in the GLOBL JAM international showcase.
Nembhard looked a bit out of sync, as you’d expect coming off a hand injury. In his first two games, he scored four points on 2-of-15 shooting, playing 38 minutes all off the bench. Here’s his lines, game-by-game.
In an 89-75 win over Brazil, he had four points, three rebounds and two assists. Two of those points came on this nifty move to get into the paint:
He was scoreless against the United States team (which was Baylor), but did have three rebounds, two assists and a steal in 17 minutes. Canada closed the game on a 25-15 run to win 69-67. Against Italy in the final game of pool play, he had four points, four assists, two steals and a rebound.
But in the rematch with the U.S. in the quarterfinals, he fared better — Nembhard had eight points, two rebounds and an assist, but Canada lost 93-87.
The bottom line with Nembhard seems to be that while he struggled, getting back on the floor in live game action will pay dividends as he prepares for the Jays’ first game three months from now.
Rati Andronikishvili
After a freshman campaign that saw Rati Andronikishvili provide a defensive spark to the Jays off the bench, he showed off his scoring ability in international play. One of two Jays playing in qualifying tournaments for the FIBA Basketball World Cup, Andronikishvili competed for his native Georgia in the European Qualifiers.
He scored four points in just five minutes of action in their opening game versus Ukraine, but in their second game, a 82-76 upset over favored Spain, he scored eight of his team’s 17 points in overtime and sparked them to victory. All totaled in that game, Andronikishvili scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting (and 5-of-8 on threes), adding two rebounds, two steals and an assist.
Arthur Kaluma
And then there’s Arthur Kaluma. One of three Bluejays named to the Big East’s All-Freshman Team last season after averaging 10.4 points and 5.4 rebounds a game, Kaluma saved his best basketball for last — he averaged 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds over the last nine games of the season.
Kaluma scored 17 points in a Big East Tournament semifinal win vs. No. 11 Providence, grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds in the Big East Tournament title game vs. No. 8 Villanova, and logged 12 points and six rebounds in 44 minutes of an NCAA Tournament win vs. San Diego State. And then he produced career-highs with 24 points and 12 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes of an NCAA Tournament loss to No. 3 Kansas.
His stock continues to rise after two games for Uganda in the African Qualifiers for the FIBA Basketball World Cup, where he was nothing short of electric.
Against Cape Verde, he had 18 points (4-of-7 on two-pointers, 1-of-2 on threes, 7-of-8 from the line) with five rebounds and two assists.
Here’s 90 seconds of highlights showcasing Kaluma doing a little of everything — knocking down threes, driving into the paint off the dribble and finishing through contact, dunking over the top of defenders, and generally looking like a future NBA lottery pick. Scouts raved at his knack for immediately cutting to the hoop after passing the ball on the perimeter, a move that repeatedly got him easy baskets when his defender fell asleep or when he just plain blew past a slow-footed defender — or got easy baskets for teammates when help defenders rotated over to cover him.
In his second game, Kaluma had 27 points, six rebounds and three assists against Nigeria, making 8-of-14 inside the arc and 5-of-6 from the line. That he did it while primarily being guarded by Chimezie Metu — an experienced NBA player under contract with the Sacramento Kings — did not go unnoticed by scouts.