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Rice Basketball Recruiting: Cal transfer Sam Alajiki commits to Owls

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The first Rice Basketball recruiting boost of the offseason has appeared. Cal transfer Sam Alajiki has committed to the Owls.

The end of the season brought notices of departure on the Rice basketball recruiting front as the Owls staff worked to find the proper replacements. Rice had already made a splash with the commitments of Keanu Dawes and Gabe Warren but a seasoned addition from the Transfer Portal was certainly expected. News of the first such new arrival has been announced in the form of Cal transfer Sam Alajiki.

Alajiki is a former Pac-12 All-Freshman team selection who made his mark with the Golden Bears quickly upon arrival, tying Cal’s program record for three point percentage in a season (50 percent on 20-of-40 attempts) in his freshman campaign.

As a sophomore, Alajiki averaged 6.1 points per game leading the Bears in three-point shooting (35.9 percent). Things began to pick up for him down the stretch with Alajiki making starts in 10 of the final 11 games, including four double-digit performances in the final nine contests.

Standing 6-foot-7, Alajiki brings size along with his shooting to South Main, as well as additional experience on the international game. Alajiki is originally from Dundalk, Ireland and averaged 13 points and six rebounds for the Irish national team in the 2022 U-20 FIBA European Championships.

Alajiki should be a valuable asset for the Owls, who are expected to return four of five starters as they make the move to the AAC next season.

Rice basketball fans will hopefully being seeing a lot of this from Alajiki when he arrives at South Main

 

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Rice Basketball Recruiting: Forward Gabe Warren commits to Owls

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The 2023 Rice Basketball Recruiting class continues to pick up steam, landing a big commitment this week from 3-star forward Gabe Warren.

Not long after securing a pledge from 4-star forward Keanu Dawes, the 2023 Rice Basketball recruiting class has doubled up. The Owls now have two members of their upcoming class. In addition to Dawes, Glendale, AZ forward Gabe Warren has committed to Rice Basketball.

Warren had already accrued nearly a dozen offers at the time of his commitment to the Owls, including offers from TCU, Sam Houston, Brown, Dartmouth and others. A Top 50 ranked small forward nationally and the No. 11 player in the state of Arizona, Warren should add some pop to the Rice program when he arrives on campus.

According to 247 Sports rankings, Warren and Dawes rank No. 2 and No. 1 all-time, respectively. The 2023 Rice Basketball recruiting class is currently slotted at No. 42 in the nation and No. 1 in Conference USA. Head coach Scott Pera and his staff have delivered two impressive additions, who enter South Main as the most highly regarded recruits in almost 10 years.

When asked about his decision and his expectations for the program, Warren didn’t beat around the bush. “The program has been slept on for too long,” he said. “Keanu and I noticed that and want to start something big.”

Standing 6-foot-6, Warren can shoot and score from all over the court. Whether from deep of at the rim, he’s an offensive weapon. He’s great off the ball but even more importantly, can create his own shot when he has the rock. He’s really fun to watch. Warren is a big get for the program and someone that will assuredly make an impact for Rice in the years to come.

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Rice Basketball Recruiting: 2023 4-star Forward Keanu Dawes commits to Owls

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The 2023 Rice Basketball Recruiting picked up a massive commitment from four-star Stratford forward Keanu Dawes.

A run of tremendous weeks of athletics on South Main extended to the hardwood this week. The 2023 Rice Basketball recruiting class scored a massive commitment from right down the road. Stratford High School forward Keanu Dawes has committed to the Owls.

Dawes’ addition is a tremendous win for the Rice basketball program. The consensus four-star recruit is a Top 120 player in the country and the No. 9 player in the state of Texas. He picked Rice over an impressive array of six finalists: Rice, Texas A&M, Texas, Utah, BYU and Oklahoma State.

Some heavy hitters wanted to get Dawes’ into their programs. Rice prevailed, notching a big recruiting win for head coach Scott Pera. Dawes is a versatile, 6-foot-9 player that will provide an instant impact at South Main. He can score from all three levels and defend well.

In September, Dawes told On3 he meshed well with the other players during his visit to campus. “We instantly had chemistry,” he said. “It felt like I had known them for years.” Dawes also mentioned the coaching staff sold him on being a critical piece as the team made the transition from Conference USA to the American, a move Pera had mentioned would help on the recruiting trail.

On a separate instance, Dawes confirmed to ZagsBlog that Pera was the first coach to reach out to him and begin building that relationship. All of those factors led him to his decision, which he announced on  Tuesday, October 11.

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Rice Basketball Recruiting: Nevada transfer Alem Huseinović commits to Owls

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The Transfer Portal continues to help supplement the 2022 Rice Basketball recruiting class. Nevada transfer Alem Huseinović has committed to the Owls.

As soon as the final buzzer sounded and the offseason began, Rice basketball recruiting and roster management took center stage. #GreenLightU will always be on the lookout for talented shooting guards, clear

Huseinović spent the last two seasons with the Nevada Wolfpack where he appeared in 43 games. Last He averaged 8.3 minutes per game last season, scoring a season-high eight points against George Mason in November. That usage was up slightly from the 7.6 minutes per game he averaged as a true freshman the year before.

Prior to that, he played his high school ball in Arizona, but it was his international exploits that helped put him on the radar. Huseinović led the Bosnia national team to a championship game appearance in the U16 European Championships, an experience Huseinović called “something that I’ll never forget” adding that it helped him learn “how to play on big stages and learn how to play more mature at a young age.”

When he hit the Transfer Portal, Huseinović drew interest from teams across the country. His recruiting would boil down to Rice, Rider, UC Riverside, Southern Utah, NJIT and NAU. He picked the Owls primarily because of the culture and his fit in the scheme deployed by head coach Scott Pera.

Huseinović sees himself as “a guard who can shoot it and create for myself while making others around me better by creating for them”, all skills that would seem to make him a great fit for the Owls shooting-intensive style.

The second addition from the Transfer Portal during this cycle, Huseinović joins forward Seryee Lewis who announced his transfer from Kansas Stater earlier this spring. You can follow all offseason roster moves with our Rice basketball recruiting and roster tracker here.

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Rice Basketball Recruiting: Kansas State transfer Seryee Lewis commits to Owls

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The first new addition of the offseason for Rice basketball has been announced. Kansas State transfer Seryee Lewis has committed to the Owls.

The Transfer Portal has become a fixture in college athletics and has become particularly entrenched in college basketball. Rice basketball knows the ebbs and flows of the portal all too well, but they’ve largely been able to down out the somber news with the exciting announcements. This week’s signing falls in the latter category. Kansas State transfer forward Seryee Lewis has committed to the Owls.

A former prep basketball product from Arizona, Lewis committed to Kansas State out of high school, turning down offers from Georgetown, Saint Louis, Illinois-Chicago and others. The three-star prospect was a top 400 player in the nation and the No. 20 player from the state of Arizona. This time around Lewis was pursued by UNLV, Depaul and Cal Berkley, eventually choosing Rice basketball.

Lewis told The Roost Rice was “the place I wanted to be,” voicing his support of what he called “the future plan with the program.”

Coming off the bench during his freshman season with the Wildcats, Lewis played in 18 contests including nine conference games. He’s scored a career-high nine points against No. 2 Baylor in 2021 and is a career 62.5 percent shooter from the floor. Lewis missed the entirety of last season after suffering a preseason injury.

Lewis said the year off has given him time to “recover and work on my game” and that his return would be “something very special to see.” Practically, that means another top-flight rebounded for the Owls. Lewis touts that as one of the strongest aspects of his game along with his versatility.

Head coach Scott Pera announced Lewis had signed his grant-in-aid paperwork on Wednesday, saying Lewis “checks all of the boxes we look for in a student-athlete. He is motivated in the classroom and on the court. He will add value to everything we do as a program.”

Excluding the incoming freshman signees, Lewis is the first new addition to the Rice basketball roster for the upcoming season. You can follow all offseason roster moves with our Rice basketball roster tracker here.

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