Green Bay lands late commitment from Enes Kanter's brother
Even though the NCAA deemed Enes Kanter ineligible to play at Kentucky three years ago, it appears another member of his family may yet get to play college basketball.
Kerem Kanter, Enes' younger brother, has signed with Green Bay and intends to play as a freshman next season, the school announced Tuesday. The younger Kanter is a 6-foot-9 forward who averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds last season at IMG Academy in Florida.
“We are very excited to add Kerem Kanter to our program,” Green Bay coach Brian Wardle said in a school-released statement.
“Kerem is a skilled forward that brings an ability to score from the inside and out. He has a great bloodline of basketball in his family, and we know he is extremely excited to get to Green Bay to pursue his dream of getting a college education and being a Division I player.”
Kanter joins a Green Bay team that dominated the Horizon League this past season but missed the NCAA tournament after being upset in the conference tournament semifinals. The Phoenix lost 7-foot center Alec Brown to the NBA, but they return most of the rest of last season's team, including dynamic guard Keifer Sykes.
It's unclear how big a role Kanter will play right away, but his performance last summer at the European U-18 Championships suggests he can make an impact. He helped lead Turkey to a gold medal, averaging 8.0 points and 5.3 boards and scoring a team-high 22 points in a semifinal win over Spain.
“I usually play at the power forward position," Kanter said in a statement. "I am a scorer. I can score in a variety of ways. I am also a good rebounder. I hate losing more than I love winning. I was always the main player at the teams that I've played on, but I know college basketball is different. I want to get in the best shape and get used to my teammates before we make some national impact.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
