Player: Joel Ntambwe
Position: Forward
Height / Weight: 6-9/210
College: UNLV (Kinsasha, Dem. Rep. Congo)
Commitment Date: May 26, 2019
I’d like to thank everyone at UNLV for a great season last year, and all the schools that have recruited me. After going through all my options along with my family, I decided to continue my collegiate career in Lubbock, Texas and play for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. pic.twitter.com/SCZ97Y8fnb
— Joelnt (@joelntambwe2) May 26, 2019
Well, Texas Tech now has 13 scholarship players committed at this point with R.J. Hampton yet to decide. Let’s see what happens.
Last year, Ntambwe played for UNLV and averaged 11.8 points, on 40.9% from the field, 38.6% from the three-point line, 5.5 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.4 blocks, and 0.5 steals a game for the Runnin’ Rebels. That’s a pretty successful season by standard, especially since Ntambwe had only 1 offer coming out of Aspire Basektball Academy in Louisville, Kentucky.
Strangely, coming out of high school, Ntambwe was deemed to be a shooting guard, but he’s somewhat of a forward, at the very least he’ll have to guard forwards.
And in the 2019-20 season Ntambwe will redshirt, so he’ll sit out the entire year and won’t play a single play for Texas Tech unless Ntambwe receives some sort of waiver as a result of his transfer. Ntambwe’s best game was against Wyoming and he was in a terrific spot in that he was averaging double-figures, shooting the ball relatively well and taking lots of shots. But then he started to fade as the season progressed and his last 6 games, Ntambwe had 7, 5, 7, 4, 6, and 4 points, while taking a high of 6 shots. It would appear that someone told him to relax with the high shot attempts.
And on a personal note, Ntambwe is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is where my son Youssouf is from so that’s going to be a ton of fun for him.
Eligibility Chart
| Position | Player | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coming | |||||||
| Guard | Davide Moretti (6-2/175) | ||||||
| Kyler Edwards (6-3/200) | |||||||
| Kevin McCullar (6-5/180) | |||||||
| Jahmius Ramsey (6-4/190) | HS | ||||||
| Clarence Nadolny (6-3/190) | HS | ||||||
| Forward | Deshawn Corprew (6-5/210) | ||||||
| Andre Savrasov (6-9/215) | |||||||
| Terrence Shannon, Jr. (6-7/185) | HS | ||||||
| TJ Holyfield (6-8/230)* | TR | ||||||
| Chris Clarke (6-6/215)** | TR | ||||||
| Tyreek Smith (6-8/205) | HS | ||||||
| Joel Ntambwe (6-9/210)*** | TR | ||||||
| Center | Russel Tchewa (7-0/255) | HS | |||||
| Going | |||||||
| Matt Mooney (6-3/200) | |||||||
| Jarrett Culver (6-5/195) | NBA | ||||||
| Brandone Francis (6-5/215) | |||||||
| Khavon Moore (6-7/215) | TR | ||||||
| Josh Mballa (6-7/215) | TR | ||||||
| Khalid Thomas (6-9/210) | JC | NA | |||||
| Norense Odiase (6-8/250) | |||||||
| Malik Ondigo (6-10/215) | TR | ||||||
| Tariq Owens (6-10/205) | |||||||
| TOTALS | 13 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 0 | |
13 scholarships each year | Black Box = Scholarship Year | Red Box = Redshirt Year | HS = Playing high school | JC = Playing junior college | TR = Transfer | NBA = Declared for NBA Draft | NA = No Longer Attending | *Transfer from SFA | **Transfer from Virginia Tech | ***Transfer from UNLV