Matej Kavas Joins Husker Basketball

Graduate Transfer is a Career 45 Percent Shooter from 3-point Range

Lincoln – Nebraska Basketball Coach Fred Hoiberg adds one of college basketball’s top 3-point shooters with the announcement Monday that Matej Kavas(pronounced MAH-tey KAH-vahs)will join the Husker program for the 2019-20 season.

Kavas, a 6-foot-8 guard from Slovenia, has played at Seattle University for the past three seasons, totaling 980 points and 358 rebounds in his career. Kavas provides the Huskers with another 3-point threat, as he as totaled 177 career 3-pointers in his collegiate career and is a career 44.7 percent shooter from long range. He is sixth among active Division I players in 3-point point percentage, and will have one year of eligibility at Nebraska.

“We are pleased to add Matej to our program,” Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg. “He is an elite shooter who has the ability to help us space the floor, which is important in our offense. Matej’s experience and versatility will be important with the number of newcomers we will have next year.”

A preseason first-team All-WAC selection in 2018-19, Kavas was limited to 24 games because a significant shin injury suffered in early January. He finished the season averaging 10.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while shooting 46 percent from 3-point range.  At the time of his injury, he was averaging 14.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game and had reached double-figures in 13 of his first 16 contests. He totaled three 20-point games in 2018-19, including a 26-point outburst vs. Omaha and a 22-point, 13-rebound effort against Longwood. He missed nearly six weeks of action with the injury, as Seattle went 1-7 in that stretch. Kavas saw limited action the rest of the season until Seattle’s Collegeinsider.com Tournament game against Presbyterian when he had 11 points and five rebounds in 20 minutes.

Kavas was a second-team All-WAC selection as a sophomore, as he averaged 15.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. He led the WAC in both 3-point percentage (.474) and 3-pointers per game (2.8) while also finishing third in the conference in scoring and 11th in rebounding. On the year, he was eighth nationally in 3-point percentage. He reached double figures 28 times, including nine games of at least 20 points, highlighted by a 27-point outing against Detroit Mercy, when he went 7-of-9 from 3-point range. Kavas also had 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting against Washington and 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting against Cal.

Kavas earned WAC Freshman-of-the-Year accolades in 2016-17, as he averaged 8.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game while shooting.404 from 3-point range to rank fourth in the conference. In all, he finished in double figures 13 times as a freshman and was the team’s third-leading scorer in WAC play at 11.6 ppg.

Before college, he was a member of the Slovenia U16 and U18 teams and averaged 13.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game at the 2014 U18 European Championships. Kavas comes from a basketball family, as his older brother Andraz plays overseas in Latvia.