Slan Sports Management is pleased to announce that Kruize Pinkins has signed a one-year contract extension with the Hebeisen White Wings Hanau of the German Pro A League.
Pinkins, a 6’7” power forward capped off his first professional season in Hanau, leading the team with 13.1 points per game, while adding 9.1 rebounds per game, good for 3rd in the league. Throughout the season, Pinkins collected seven Eurobasket.com Top-10 Performer of the Week nods, including the Player of the Week award in round 27 after posting a 17 point, 14 rebound performance. Pinkins was named the Eurobasket.com Newcomer of the Year, and was selected to both the German Pro A First Team and the German Pro A All-Imports Team.
A Marianna, Florida native, Pinkins attended Marianna High School prior to starting his collegiate career with Chipola College of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). As a sophomore with the Indians, Pinkins earned First Team All-Panhandle League honours after averaging 11.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and shooting 57.8% from the floor. For his junior season, Pinkins moved to the University of San Francisco in the West Coast Conference (WCC) of the NCAA. That year, he averaged 12.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, while also leading the WCC with 3.2 offensive rebounds per game.
Prior to his senior season with the Dons, Pinkins was selected to the All-WCC Pre-Season Team. He followed that up with averages of 13.9 points, and 5.5 rebounds per game during the regular season, finishing 11th and 13th in the conference respectively.
Pinkins is excited to get back to Hanau and improve on his rookie season.
“I'm very excited about re-signing in Hanau,” said Pinkins. “They are a great organization and great people. I'm ready to get to Germany so that we can start working. We have unfinished business from last year and we all know what we need to do.”
Hanau finished the 2015-2016 campaign narrowly missing the playoffs with a 13-17 record. They look for Pinkins to build off his rookie year and continue to lead the team at both ends of the floor.
“We are extremely happy to have Kruize back with the White Wings,” said Simon Cote, Hebeisen White Wings Hanau, Head Coach. “Kruize established himself as one of the best players in Pro A in his first season. Along with being our leading scorer and rebounder he is an outstanding teammate and person. I believe he will grow and develop a lot this season as he is hungry to improve, and has a lot of potential.”
For more information and individual box scores for Kruize throughout the season, visit http://slansportsmanagement.com/kruize-pinkins.
Editor's Note: Photo found on slansportsmanagement.com and is by Jeffrey D. Allred.