Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(ACC). He began his college career with one season with the UCLA Bruins, before transferring to Wake Forest.
Early life and youth career
Born in Genoa, Italy, to a Senegalese father and a Kosovo Albanian mother, Canka grew up playing basketball for Tigullio Sport Team Ligure. In 2016, he joined the youth academy of Serie B club Stella Azzurra Roma. In 2018, Canka joined the
Roseto Sharks
Roseto Sharks is an Italian professional basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Sh ...
youth program.
In January 2020, Canka played for Stella Azzurra's under-18 team at the
Adidas Next Generation Tournament
The Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament is an international boy's youth age basketball tournament that is contested between the best basketball clubs in Europe in the Under-18 age category. The tournament is organized by Euroleague Ba ...
in Munich, where he helped the team reach the final and was named to the all-tournament team. He averaged 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.3 steals in four games.
Professional career
Canka started the 2019–20 season with Stella Azzurra Roma in the third-tier Serie B. He made his first and only appearance on 28 September 2019. He joined the
Roseto Sharks
Roseto Sharks is an Italian professional basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Sh ...
in the second-tier Serie A2 in October 2019. On 13 October, he recorded a career-high 25 points, shooting 12-of-15 from the field, along with nine rebounds, five assists and five steals in a 113–112 double-overtime win over JuveCaserta. He averaged 7.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 steals in 18 games for Roseto in 2019–20.
On 27 June 2020, Canka signed with
Lokomotiv Kuban
PBC Lokomotiv Kuban (russian: ПБК «Локомотив Кубань») is a Russian professional basketball team based in Krasnodar. The club participates in the VTB United League.
The team is one of the top tier basketball teams in Russia. T ...
Nevėžis Kėdainiai
The Nevėžis () is the sixth longest river in Lithuania and one of the main tributaries of the Nemunas. Its length is , and it flows only within the geographical confines of Lithuania.Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL). In 17 games in 2020–21, he averaged 7.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.
Canka started the 2021–22 season with Nevėžis Kėdainiai and averaged 7.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.2 steals in nine games. He returned to Lokomotiv Kuban on 3 December 2021. To finish the 2021–22 season, he played one game for Lokomotiv in the VTB United League and 16 games for Lokomotiv's reserves team in the Russian Basketball Super League 1.
College career
In August 2022, Canka moved to the United States to play college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, whose assistant coach Ivo Simović had strong connections to the international community. As a
freshman
A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions.
Ara ...
in
2022–23
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
, Canka played in 22 games and averaged 1.5 points in 5.4 minutes per game. He shot 44% overall and 50% on 3-pointers (5 of 10), but struggled at times defensively, not uncommon for youngsters in coach Mick Cronin's complex defense.
In May 2023, Canka transferred to Wake Forest, who had recruited him before he chose UCLA.
2018 FIBA U16 European Championship
The 2018 FIBA U16 European Championship was the 32nd edition of the Under-16 European Basketball Championship. The competition took place from 10 to 18 August 2018 in Novi Sad, Serbia. Sixteen (16) teams are participating, including 2017 Divisio ...
in Novi Sad, Serbia. In seven games, he averaged 10.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, two assists and 1.9 steals per game, leading his team to 12th place. He also averaged 9.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in the
2022 FIBA U20 European Championship
The 2022 FIBA U20 European Championship was the 23rd edition of the European basketball championship for national under-20 teams. It was played from 16 to 24 July 2022 in Podgorica, Montenegro. Spain men's national under-20 basketball team won t ...
.
Career statistics
College
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2022–23
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...