is a Japanese

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player for the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. He previously played for

Ranger College Ranger College is a public community college in Ranger, Texas. The college's website asserts that it "is one of the oldest public two-year colleges in continuous operation in the state of Texas." In conjunction with its main campus in Ranger, the ...

. Tominaga has been a member of the

Japan men's national basketball team The Japan national basketball team is administered by the Japan Basketball Association (JBA), (Japanese: 日本バスケットボール協会, ''Nihon Basukettobōru Kyōkai''). At the 1936 founding member of FIBA Asia, Japan has one of Asia ...

and the national 3x3 team.

High school career

Tominaga attended Sakuragaoka Gakuen High School in

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

and played for its basketball team. As a senior, he averaged 39.8 points per game at the All-Japan Championship, an annual national high school tournament. During the third-place game, he posted a tournament-high 46 points in a 76–65 win over the Teikyo Nagaoka of

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

College career

Ranger

Freshman

On November 1, 2019, Tominaga made his collegiate debut for the

, against the

Missouri State University–West Plains Missouri State University–West Plains is a public community college in West Plains, Missouri. It is a separately accredited campus of Missouri State University. The fall 2018 enrollment was 1,869 students. Established in 1963, Missouri State Un ...

, scoring 19 points in a 100–84 win. On November 16, he logged a season-high 34 points in a 110–60 victory against Victoria College. On November 28, Tominaga verbally committed to play for

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

program

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, under former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

coach

Fred Hoiberg Fredrick Kristian Hoiberg (born October 15, 1972) is an American college basketball coach and former player. He has served as the men's head basketball coach at the University of Nebraska since 2019. Hoiberg grew up in Ames, Iowa, and played coll ...

for the 2021 class. As a freshman, Tominaga averaged 16.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game while shooting 54.9 percent from the field and 47.9 percent from 3-point range. In his efforts, Tominaga earned the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

All-Region V Team and the First Team All- Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference honors. He was also named conference Freshman of The Year, leading the conference in 3-point shooting and ranking sixth in both scoring and field goal percentage. With Tominaga playing for Ranger College, the team finished the season with a 28–3 record, helping them clinch a position in the NJCAA national tournament. However, the season ended early due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Ranger eventually finished second in the NJCAA national rankings.

Sophomore

On November 11, 2020, Hoiberg announced that Tominaga has signed a

National Letter of Intent National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

to transfer to the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

next season. On March 3, 2021, Tominaga scored a season-high 39 points, knocking down 11 3-pointers in a 113–102 win over

Grayson College Grayson College is a public community college in Grayson County, Texas. The main campus is in Denison, Texas, Denison and it has branch campuses in Denison (west extension, at the site of the old Perrin Air Force Base) and Van Alstyne, Texas, V ...

. Three days later, he had 26 points in a win against

Temple College Temple College is a public community college in Temple, Texas, with regional branch campuses at other locations in Central Texas. History Temple Junior College was founded in 1926 to serve post-secondary students in eastern Bell County, Texa ...

. In his efforts, Tominaga set a school record for career 3-pointers with 139, previously held by Brayan Au with 130. For his performance, Tominaga was named Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference Player of the Week for February 28 to March 6. On April 22, Tominaga posted a game-high 25 points, sinking five 3-pointers in an 87–83 win against

South Plains College South Plains College (SPC) is a public community college in Levelland, Texas. It operates satellite branches in Plainview, at the Reese Technology Center, formerly Reese Air Force Base, in western Lubbock, and the Lubbock Center near centra ...

, sending the Rangers to the Final Four round of the NJCAA Division I Championship. Despite his team-high 26-point performance in the semifinals, the team lost to

Cowley County Community College Cowley College is a public community college in Arkansas City, Kansas. It also operates locations in nearby Wellington, Winfield, Mulvane, and downtown Wichita. In addition to an online presence the college offers on-site courses at nine area ...

. Ranger College finished its season with a 23–5 record. Tominaga averaged 16.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 51.0 percent from the field and 48.7 percent from 3-point range as a sophomore, earning him the NJCAA All-Region V Team and the First Team All-Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference honors for the second time in a row. He was named to the NJCAA Division I All-Tournament Team and was the recipient of the Charles Sesher Sportsmanship Award. Tominaga also earned the NJCAA Division I Second-Team All-American honors.

Nebraska

Second sophomore season

Tominaga transferred to the

on a full scholarship to play for the

Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

. Due to

, the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

ruled that the 2020–21 season would not count against the eligibility of any student-athlete in any of the organization's winter sports, including basketball, giving Tominaga three years of eligibility instead of two. He made his debut for Nebraska on November 9, 2021, against

Western Illinois Forgottonia (), also spelled Forgotonia, is the name given to a 16-County (United States), county region in Western Illinois in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This geographic region forms the distinctive western bulge of Illinois (area west of ...

, finishing with three points, one rebound and three steals across 18 minutes of play in a 75–74 loss. On November 27, Tominaga posted a season-high 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 from three, along with two assists and two steals in an 83–70 win over

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

National team career

Keisei Tominaga with Japan national U18 basketball team in 2018

Junior national team

Tominaga made his international debut when he was selected to be a part of the Japanese squad that competed at the 2018 FIBA Under-16 Asian Championship, where he led the team in efficiency (13.3) and points (17.5) per game. His tournament highlights included a game-high 27-point outing, knocking down seven 3-pointers and scoring 19 points in five minutes in a 109–57 victory against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Tominaga finished the tournament as the fourth-leading scorer. Later that year, Tominaga suited up for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

at the

2018 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship The 2018 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship was the 25th edition of the Asian Championship for Junior Men aged 18 years old and below. The tournament was held in Nonthaburi, Thailand from August 5 to 11. held off , 72−63, to win their first-e ...

, leading the team in efficiency (14.6) and points (19.3) per game once more. In a game against

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

, Japan was down 70–58 with five minutes left to play, Tominaga then logged 11 points in two minutes, cutting the lead to three points. He finished the game with 33 points, helping Japan secure the win. Tominaga was the tournament’s fifth best scorer.

Senior national team

Tominaga earned his first senior national team call up after being named to the 12-man roster that represented

for the third window of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers held in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. In his debut match against the tournament's host team, Tominaga scored a game-high 18 points, knocking down five 3-pointers coming off the bench. He led the team in scoring with 17.5 points per game, drilling down five 3-pointers. Following his impressive debut, Tominaga played for the national team at the

2022 FIBA Asia Cup The 2022 FIBA Asia Cup (formerly known as the FIBA Asia Championship) will be the 30th continental basketball championship in Asia. The tournament is organised by FIBA Asia. Originally intended to be the 2021 edition, the tournament was initiall ...

. In the quarterfinals, Japan's first appearance since 2015, Tominaga logged a game-high 33 points, knocking down eight 3-pointers in a 99–85 loss against

. Tominaga finished the tournament ranking second in points (15.2) and third in efficiency (12.0) per game for the team.

3x3 national team

Tominaga represented

at the Asia-Europe Conference of the 2019 FIBA 3x3 Under-23 Nations League, where the team ranked last among six contenders. Two years later, Tominaga starred for

at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, where he became the youngest player to represent Japan in

3x3 basketball 3x3 basketball (pronounced ''three-ex-three'') is a variation of basketball played three-a-side, with one backboard and in a half-court setup. According to an ESSEC Business School study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, 3x3 ...

. He led the team in scoring with 6.9 points per game. Tominaga ranked near the top of a number of key categories in the tournament, including fourth in scoring, second in one-point shooting and seventh in two-point shooting.

Player profile

Tominaga is known for his shooting ability beyond the arc and jump shot similar to famous NBA player

Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...

, which earned him the nickname the "Japanese Steph Curry".

Career statistics

College

NCAA Division I

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 11 , , 16.5 , , .373 , , .330 , , .842 , , 1.5 , , 0.6 , , 0.8 , , 0.0 , , 5.7 , - , style="text-align:left;",

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 ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 10 , , 24.0 , , .492 , , .403 , , .860 , , 1.5 , , 0.8 , , 0.5 , , 0.1 , , 12.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 58 , , 21 , , 20.1 , , .448 , , .372 , , .855 , , 1.5 , , 0.7 , , 0.6 , , 0.1 , , 9.1

JUCO

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

Ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, 31 , , 28 , , 2.0 , , .549 , , .479 , , .855 , , 2.3 , , 0.7 , , 1.1 , , 0.3 , , 16.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , style="text-align:left;",

, 27 , , 24 , , 6.8 , , .510 , , .487 , , .883 , , 2.4 , , 1.6 , , 1.0 , , 0.1 , , 16.3 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 58 , , 52 , , 4.4 , , .530 , , .483 , , .869 , , 2.4 , , 1.1 , , 1.1 , , 0.2 , , 16.6

Personal life

Tominaga was born on February 1, 2001, in

Moriyama 270px, Lake Biwa from Moriyama is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 85,485 in 34366 households and a population density of 1533.63 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Mo ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

Aichi is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectu ...

to parents with basketball experience. His father,

Hiroyuki is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Hiroki can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: extensive, good fortune, spacious. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . It is written in hir ...

, was a 6-foot-11

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, who played professional basketball for

Mitsubishi Electric , established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators an ...

from 1996 to 2006 and was a member of the Japanese national team that competed during the

1998 FIBA World Championship The 1998 FIBA World Championship was the 13th FIBA World Championship, an international basketball tournament held by the International Basketball Federation and hosted in Greece from 29 July to 9 August 1998. The tournament was contested by 16 n ...

. Tominaga’s mother, Hitomi, was an industrial league player also for the women's team of Mitsubishi Electric. Tominaga has one younger sister, Chihiro.

Footnotes

References

External links

Nebraska Cornhuskers bio

from Sports-Reference.com

at olympics.com
Keisei Tominaga
at fiba.basketball *
Keisei Tominaga at the 2018 FIBA U-18 Asian Championship
at fiba.basketball
Keisei Tominaga at the 2018 FIBA U-16 Asian Championship
at fiba.basketball * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tominaga, Keisei 2001 births Living people Sportspeople from Aichi Prefecture Japanese men's basketball players Shooting guards Japanese expatriate basketball people in the United States Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball players 3x3 basketball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic 3x3 basketball players of Japan