Fred Hoiberg has a little something extra to be thankful for on Thursday.
Nebraska landed its first 2021 commit in Keisei Tominaga, a 6-foot guard from Aichi Prefecture, Japan. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony broke the news.
Japanese combo guard Keisei Tominaga has committed to Fred Hoiberg and Nebraska in the class of 2021, a source told ESPN. The BWB and FIBA U18 national team alum is an elite shooter, averaging 18 ppg while making over 50% of his 3-pointers on the season for Ranger CC.
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) November 28, 2019
Tominaga is currently playing at Ranger Community College in Texas. The Rangers are 11-0 this season, though their website only has stats for seven of them. In those seven games, the Japanese sharpshooter averaged 17.1 points on 58.7% including 50% (23-46) from 3. He’s also 9-of-9 from the foul line.
Tominaga put up 34 points in a win over Victoria College, shooting 12-of-20 from the field including 8-of-14 from 3, and he’s also had two 21-point outings. He’s scored in double figures in six of those seven games.
Tominaga’s father played for the Japanese national team and Tominaga has played for Japan at the youth level as well.
In the FIBA U18 Asian Championship, he averaged 19.3 points on 43.9% from the field, 34.3% from 3 and 85.7% from the free-throw line in seven games. He put up 33 points in one game and 28 in another.
In the FIBA U16 Asian Championship he averaged 17.5 points on 45.7% from the field, 42.2% from 3 and 75% from the foul line with games of 27 (7-of-9 from 3) and 24 (5-of-6 from deep).
Tominaga needs to earn his degree from Ranger to qualify to play at Nebraska, so he’ll still have one more season after this year playing for former high-major coach Billy Gillispie. Nebraska projects to have three more open scholarships for 2021 after Tominaga’s commitment.
Nebraska currently has one open spot in 2020. Lincoln North Star guard Donovan Williams is committed but did not sign his letter of intent during the early signing period. He’s currently recovering from a torn ACL.
Tominaga adds even more international flavor to a program with plenty of it already. The Huskers have two players from Canada, one from Iceland, one from Slovenia and one from France on their 2019-20 roster.
Jacob is in his third year with Hail Varsity covering Husker athletics. He has also written extensively for SB Nation’s Bright Side of the Sun and The Creightonian. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
