Illinois State sophomore Kaza Keane, who hails from Ajax, Ontario has verified he will transfer from the ISU Redbirds.
Keane was selected as a member of the Junior Men’s National Team that represented Canada at the 2013 U19 World Championships. Keane donning the red and white flirted with a triple-double in a game versus Iran after a 25 minutes played, 9 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assist performance.
Keane told American media he desired to find a school closer to home after not having played in front of his family for the last three years.
“The experience (at ISU) has been great, but not being able to see my family is a burden,” Keane told the Penatgraph.com.
The 6-1 point guard graduated high school from Ro Russell’s Christian Faith Center Academy in Creedmoor, N.C. He also played with Grassroots Canada on the AAU circuit. On both fronts for Coach Russell, Keane averaged 20 plus points per game and parlayed it into a D1 career.
In Keane’s freshman year he started 10 games averaging 18 minutes per game. After returning from the U19 Worlds (averaging only 17 minutes and shooting only 29 percent over nine games) Keane wasn’t really given the reigns at running an offense for ISU. As a sophomore Keane only averaged 12 minutes per contest and didn’t start a single game. His shooting percentage dropped from 35 percent to 30 from year one to two.
Kaza Keane in action for Illinois State
Despite defense’s sagging in on Keane for two years as evident by the low shooting percentages, going for him is still the fact he was among the top 5 across the MVC after his freshman year in the assist to turnover ratio category. Perhaps the true point guard Keane pushed it too hard as a sophomore but now he officially wont have the opportunity to win his job back next season.
One NCAA scout told Hoop’s Hype Canada Tuesday, “Kaza will definitely be a D-I player. He is not a step to slow, he got in the lane plenty of times. Just too often he didn’t have a plan once he got there. That will improve with experience.”
Keane became the first Canadian in ISU program history when he joined the team two years ago. He chose Illinois State over Penn State.
Now let the Kaza Keane Sweepstakes begin.
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