Peter Richard Kiss (born May 9, 1997) is an American 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 #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

Soles de Mexicali The Soles de Mexicali (English: ''Mexicali Suns'') is a Mexican professional basketball team based in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, playing in the Northern Division of the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional (LNBP). The team was founde ...

, of the Mexican LNBP. He played

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 ...

for the

Bryant Bulldogs The Bryant Bulldogs are the athletic teams representing Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island. As of July 1, 2022, the Bulldogs compete in most National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I sports as members of the America ...

of the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

(NEC). He previously played for the

Quinnipiac Bobcats The Quinnipiac Bobcats are the 21 sports teams representing Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut in intercollegiate athletics. The Bobcats compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, joining on ...

and the

Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football ...

. In Kiss'

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

senior season at

Bryant University Bryant University is a private university in Smithfield, Rhode Island. It has two colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business, and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. History Butler Exc ...

, he averaged 25.2 points per game leading the NCAA Division I in scoring.

High school career

Kiss started his high school career at Loyola School Manhattan then

Monsignor Scanlan High School Monsignor Scanlan High School is an American four-year private, Roman Catholic high school located in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of The Bronx, New York City, New York. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and is accredite ...

The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...

, and began playing basketball seriously in his sophomore season. He then attended Victory Rock Prep School in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...

before spending his senior year at Notre Dame Preparatory School in

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 census. Fitchburg is home to Fitchburg State University as well as 17 public and private e ...

. Kiss committed to playing college basketball for

Quinnipiac Quinnipiac is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; ''cf.'' Ojibwe: ''Anishinaabeg'' and Blackfoot: ''Niitsítapi''), a Quiripi-speaking Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the ''Wampano ...

in October 2015.

College career

Quinnipiac

Kiss spent one year at Quinnipiac. In his one season, Kiss became a leader on the team averaging 13.3 points per game. He was named to the MAAC All-Rookie Team including being named the MAAC Rookie of the Week four times and leading Quinnipiac in scoring in eight games. Kiss transferred to Rutgers over the likes of Seton Hall and Auburn.

Rutgers

In his first year with Rutgers, Kiss redshirted due to not being eligible because of NCAA transfer rules. In his first season playing with Rutgers, Kiss would play in 30 games averaging six points a game. Despite this, there were concerns regarding Kiss' defense. The following season, Kiss would only play in two games and as a result Kiss made the decision to transfer to Bryant.

Bryant

In Kiss' first year at Bryant, he played in and started in 22 games averaging 16.6 points per game. As a result, Kiss was named to the First-team All-

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

. In Kiss' second season with Bryant, he led the NCAA in scoring. Kiss averaged 25.1 points per game. Kiss became the fastest player in program history to tally 1,000 points, doing so in 48 games. During the season, Kiss was suspended for the first two games by Bryant head coach

Jared Grasso Jared Keith Grasso (born May 11, 1980) is an American college basketball coach. He was most recently the head coach of the Bryant Bulldogs men's basketball team from 2018 to 2023. In his fifth season, he led Bryant to the 2022 NCAA Division I men' ...

for an unspecified violation of team rules. Kiss was suspended for a second time for unsportsmanlike conduct in a game against

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. The suspension kept Kiss out for another two games. Throughout the season, Kiss led the NCAA in technical fouls with 9. Despite being one of the top scorers in Division I basketball, Kiss did not win the NEC Player of the Year Award, and it was believed that Kiss's antics kept him from winning the award. He was named to the First Team All-NEC, however. An assistant coach in the NEC called Kiss "bush league" and recalled how he mocked opposing players after turnovers and blew a kiss at

Fairleigh Dickinson Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university with its main campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University currently offers more than 100 degree programs to its students. In addition to its tw ...

head coach

Greg Herenda Greg Herenda (born April 2, 1961) is an American basketball coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach at Elon. He is the former head coach of the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights men's basketball team. and previously served as th ...

after hitting a 3-pointer, among other incidents. In the 2022 NEC tournament, Kiss led the Bulldogs to the

championship game In sport, a championship is a Competition#Sports, competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match sy ...

after wins against Central Connecticut and Mount St. Mary's. Throughout the game, Kiss regularly taunted opposing players and fans by showboating, flexing and doing push-ups after field goals, even screaming "That's for you, bitch!" at a reporter who predicted Bryant would lose. After a brawl and a 30-minute delay, play resumed, and the Bulldogs won 70–43 to clinch their first ever bid to the NCAA tournament. Kiss was named the MVP of the tournament. In the

2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's college basketball national champion for the ...

, Kiss scored 28 points in the Bulldog's

First Four The First Four is a play-in round of the NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments. It consists of two games contested between the four lowest-ranked teams in the field, and two games contested between the four lowest-seeded "a ...

game against Wright State. Bryant lost the game 82–93.

Professional career

In September 2022, Kiss signed with Mexican team

. He scored 11 points in his professional debut, an 89–75 loss to the

Dorados de Chihuahua Dorados de Chihuahua (English: Chihuahua Goldens) are a refounded baseball team from the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Recently, the Tuneros de San Luis moved to Chihuahua and took the Dorados namesake, which also brought the LMB (AAA ...

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 20 , , 29.8 , , .408 , , .277 , , .742 , , 5.6 , , 2.8 , , 1.2 , , .2 , , 13.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 11 , , 18.1 , , .384 , , .302 , , .581 , , 2.2 , , .9 , , .4 , , .1 , , 6.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 2 , , 0 , , 6.5 , , .000 , , .000 , , .000 , , 1.0 , , .5 , , .5 , , .0 , , .0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 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;", Bryant , 22 , , 22 , , 33.0 , , .504 , , .424 , , .851 , , 6.5 , , 3.2 , , 1.9 , , .3 , , 16.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Bryant , 27 , , 26 , , 35.7 , , .456 , , .296 , , .784 , , 5.8 , , 3.2 , , 1.7 , , .3 , , style="background:#cfecec;" , 25.2* , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 112 , , 79 , , 28.3 , , .441 , , .313 , , .771 , , 4.8 , , 2.4 , , 1.2 , , .2 , , 14.6

Personal life

Kiss' parents, Peter and Ida, emigrated from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Growing up in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, Kiss mainly played baseball.

References

External links

Bryant Bulldogs bioRutgers Scarlet Knights bioQuinnipiac Bobcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiss, Peter 1997 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in Mexico American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York City Bryant Bulldogs men's basketball players Quinnipiac Bobcats men's basketball players Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball players Shooting guards Soles de Mexicali players