Two former UCSB basketball players have raised their profiles significantly this summer. Gabe Vincent was the leading scorer in Nigeria’s 90-87 upset of the U.S. men’s team in a pre-Olympic exhibition, and Max Heidegger concluded his season in the Israeli Premier League with a 43-point outburst.
Vincent, adopting the Nigerian name Nnamdi from his father’s native country, sank six of eight three-pointers and scored 21 points against such NBA stars as Damian Lillard last Saturday in Las Vegas. Vincent was undrafted out of UCSB in 2018 and proved himself in the G-League, finally earning minutes with the NBA’s Miami Heat during the past season.
“Gabe made it to the NBA the old-fashioned way,” Gaucho coach Joe Pasternack said. “What a statement he made the other night.”