Nebrasketball Player Profile: Keisei Tominaga

The Nebraska Cornhuskers picked up what looks to be one of the top JuCo signees in the 2021 class in Keisei Tominaga. The elite shooter in his final season of junior college earned 2020-21 NJCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Second-Team All-American honors and played for Japan in the 2020 Olympics this summer.

Tominaga spent the last two seasons at Ranger (Texas) College. The team went 22-4 while making a NJCAA National Tournament semifinals appearance in 2021, and won 50 total games during his two seasons with them. A hot shooter from deep, Tominaga hit 198 three-pointers over his two seasons, good for a 48 percent shooting rate from deep.

A native of Moriyama Nagoya Aichi, Japan, Tominaga was named to Japan’s B National team in August 2020. He played for Japan’s U-18 team at the Asian Championships, averaging 19.3 points per game. His national debut was with the U-16 program at the Asian Championships, where he averaged 17.5 points per game, including a tournament high 3.2 three-pointers per game.

In the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games this summer, Tominaga’s team advanced to the quarter-finals before falling to Latvia. He scored eight points and hit the game-winning shot that advanced his team past China in a 21-16 win to setup the match against Latvia. He was 6-for-7 overall in the game against China.

Against Latvia, Tominaga helped rally Japan from an 11-4 deficit early before Latvia, a medal favorite, avoided the upset. Tominaga scored nine in that matchup and led his team in scoring in the games, averaging 6.9 ppg. He ranked fourth in the tournament in scoring, second in one-point shooting (74%), and seventh in two-point shooting (36%).

Tominaga’s shooting from deep should be a welcome addition this upcoming season for Nebraska. It also should fit nicely with head coach Fred Hoiberg’s offensive system. Earning All-American honors just adds a nice little extra dose of Kool-Aid on top of it all.

While fans might not see him break into the starting ranks, he should likely see plenty of minutes on the court. It may be a bit of an adjustment at first, however, as he gets comfortable in power-six conference play after two years in the JuCo ranks.