FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Media Relations
BC Batuma info on eurobasket.com
Official League Website (In Georgian)
SOMERS, Wis. (Sept. 3, 2013)-- 2013 Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year and former University of Wisconsin-Parkside men's basketball student-athlete Jeremy Saffold has signed a professional contract to play overseas with Basketball Club Batumi in the Georgian Superleague.
"This is a great opportunity for Jeremy and one that he has definitely earned. While he had an outstanding career at UW-Parkside, helping lead us to a division championship and back into the NCAA tournament this past season, I truly believe his best basketball is still in front of him," said UW-Parkside head coach Luke Reigel.
Saffold heads to the former Soviet republic after an outstanding career in the green and white. The forward was a key component in the Rangers' success in 2012-2013, leading the squad in scoring and finishing second in the GLVC, averaging 18.4 points per game while collecting 5.4 rebounds per game. Saffold, one of just three Rangers in program history to amass over 1,500-points and 500-rebounds, was named the GLVC Player of the Year and was a unanimous First Team All-GLVC selection while earning Daktronics First Team All-Region honors for District 4 and National Association of Basketball Coaches All-Midwest District First Team accolades. The forward finished his stellar career with 1,573 points, good for fifth on the all-time scoring list and was invited to the NABC Division II All-Star Game last March.
BC Batumi is based in Batumi, Georgia, a seaside city on the coast of the Black Sea in the southwestern part of the country. The 11-team Superleague is the top league in Georgia and was founded in 1991 after the nation declared independence from the Soviet Union. Since then, BC Batumi has captured five championships with the last one coming during the 2004 season.
"We take a great deal of pride in developing young men into well-rounded individuals both on and off the floor and the education Jeremy received both in the classrooms of UW-Parkside and on the court will help him be successful throughout his professional career. We wish Jeremy nothing but the best and look forward to following him throughout the upcoming season."
The Rangers (20-9, 14-4 GLVC) had a record setting season in 2012-2013, winning the GLVC East Division crown for the first time in program history while earning a bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time since 2007 while ranking as high as 13th in the NABC Coaches' Poll.
