Former KSU basketball player Kendrick Ray is raising eyebrows in the Czech Republic while starring for perennial juggernaut CEZ Nymburk in the Czech National Basketball League.
The player who led the Owls with 21.2 points per game in his senior year is now averaging 15.1 points per game in his new European surroundings. In both domestic and international competitions, Ray is making appearances on highlight reels.
On March 7, a video was shared on Twitter by Dmitry Planidin that showed highlights of a 30-point performance Ray had against Greek side AEK Athens.
Ray played two seasons for the Owls, transferring to KSU from Quinnipiac University after his sophomore year. He instantly became an integral part of head coach Al Skinner’s squad in the 2015-16 season, working seamlessly with the likes of Yonel Brown, Bernard Morena and Aubrey Williams.
In his senior season, Ray became the first player in team history to earn first-team all-conference honors in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Since finalizing his move to Nymburk last July, Ray has been a consistent force for the team, featuring in 25 Czech league games as well as 14 games in the European Basketball Champions League. By balancing his minutes between both competitions, Ray has been able to be a factor throughout the season.
His skill set was always wide-ranging and on full display whenever he took the court at the Convocation Center, and those skills have translated well at the Tipsport Arena.
“I really haven’t changed my game much,” Ray said. “Adjusting was hard at first for me but Nymburk is an uptempo team that likes to run up and down, so it didn’t take that long for me to adjust to the team.”
Even more so than in college, European basketball teams have a tendency to play in a team-oriented fashion, which suits Ray’s style of play. Although Ray is currently the top scorer on the team, much of Nymburk’s past and current success can be credited to the collective efforts of all players.
“They’ve welcomed me with open arms and we clicked from the beginning,” Ray said. “My role here is to just make plays for me or my teammates — pretty much the same role I had at KSU.”
According to Ray’s representative agency Pensack Sports Management Group, “four or five” NBA teams have expressed interest in bringing him to summer workouts and minicamps while two teams are interested in going over to the Czech Republic to watch Ray and interview him.
