Former Maryknoll standout Justice Sueing Jr. has proven he can be a productive basketball player just about anywhere in the Western United States. Now he’s taking his talents to the East.
Sueing, who played his first two years of college ball at California, recently announced he is transferring to Ohio State of the Big Ten.
— Justice Sueing (@JusticeSueing) May 11, 2019
The situation is a decided upgrade, though the 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward will have to sit out games for a year per NCAA Division I basketball rules.
Ohio State has been competitive in the Big Ten in Chris Holtmann’s first two years as head coach. The Buckeyes won an NCAA Tournament game both years, including as a No. 11 seed upsetting No. 6 Iowa State this March.
Cal struggled mightily the last two years, in the Pac-12 or otherwise, under coach Wyking Jones, who was fired after just those two years on the job and replaced by Mark Fox. The Bears were 8-23 in 2018-19, including 3-15 in conference. (They were 8-24, 2-16 the year prior.)
Sueing, the son of the former Hawaii standout of the same name, is no stranger to transfers. He went from a school in Arizona his freshman year of high school to Maryknoll for his sophomore year (where his father was an assistant coach), then journeyed to Mater Dei High in Southern California to complete his prep career, averaging 18.2 points his senior year as a 3- and 4-star recruiting prospect, depending on the grader.
His freshman year at Cal, he was a productive player on a subpar team — 13.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game — including an appearance at the Maui Invitational in which the Golden Bears lost to Chaminade.
As a Cal sophomore, his biggest statistical improvement came at the free-throw line, where he went from 67.2 percent his first year to 78.2 percent. That was a big reason why his scoring average jumped to 14.3 per game and he became the Bears’ go-to option and scoring leader. He also knocked down his turnovers considerably.
Here’s some Sueing game highlights win a win over San Diego State from early in the 2018-19 season.
Last month he posted his intentions to transfer and thanked Cal.
🐻💙💛 pic.twitter.com/uYCbSM6SzR
— Justice Sueing (@JusticeSueing) April 4, 2019
How did Maryknoll do when he was a sophomore here? How the heck did they not win the ILH & state championship that year??
No can stay in 1 place
I just remember in that game against Chaminade in Maui that Cal was down by like 30 points at one point. It was a spanking.