Following one memorable season at Liberty, Keenan Gumbs will continue playing basketball, signing his first professional contract with the Kapfenberg Bulls in Austria.
“The feeling is unreal,” Gumbs said on achieving his dream of playing basketball professionally. “It has been a long journey to get to this point but I am excited, blessed and grateful for the opportunity the Kapfenberg Bulls are giving me.”
Gumbs will play against some of the best talent in Europe as Kapfenberg will compete in the Basketball Champions League composed of 28 European countries. Gumbs is the second American that Kapfenberg has signed this summer as Gumbs joins Gonzaga graduate Jeremy Jones.
In just one season at Liberty, Gumbs provided a lot of highlight dunks, including to being featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10 Plays on Feb. 9, as Gumbs’ dunk on FGCU was featured as the No. 3 play. On the hardwood, he averaged 5.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists per contest this season, while playing in all 36 games, starting 12.
“We are so proud of Keenan and all the hard work he put into his craft,” head coach Ritchie McKay said. “It is hard to make a lasting impact on a program in one season but Keenan’s work ethic and determination is a trait our current players can look up to.”
Gumbs also shined in the classroom as he was named to the 2018-19 ASUN Winter Winners for Life team, which is comprised of one student-athlete from each of the nine institutions and honors those who display excellence on and off the playing surface. Gumbs was an Exercise Science and Human Performance major with a 3.79 cumulative GPA and a CoSIDA Academic All-America nominee.
Gumbs is now the eighth player McKay has coached at Liberty to play professionally and third since returning to Liberty in 2015 joining Ray Chen who was the No. 1 overall pick in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and John Dawson who recently played in the NBA G-League for the Greensboro Swarm.
“My year at Liberty was hard but it was amazing,” Gumbs added. “I learned so much about the game of basketball and myself personally. The coaching staff helped me take my game to a new level and I am excited to showcase that once I get to play professionally.”
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