Hawaii men’s basketball: Isaac Fotu has FIBA World Cup to remember
Whether it’s in college, the pro ranks or representing his country on one of international basketball’s biggest stages, Isaac Fotu’s game translates.
The former Hawaii standout forward just completed competition for his native New Zealand in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and was one of the Tall Blacks’ go-to players as they posted a 3-2 record, finishing 19th of 32 teams competing.
Fotu ranked No. 10 among all players in the tournament in points per game (18.4), while leading the whole field in field-goal percentage (.667) and contributing 6.0 rebounds per game.
Fotu, a 2013-14 All-Big West first-teamer whose UH career was cut short after two years due to a well-known incident, still has a photo banner of himself from his Hawaii days on his Twitter profile.
He’s now a 25-year-old veteran of international play, someone who’s been through the top pro circuits of Spain and Germany and recently agreed to play for Universo Treviso in Italy’s highest tier. But he messaged Hawaii Warrior World “yeah, probably,” to whether this Cup was the biggest stage he’s played on as a pro or national team member.
He said this week: “It was a very enjoyable World Cup for me and my teammates. We know we’re an undersized team when it comes to international basketball so we used our speed and sped the game up and made bigger teams try run with us which was successful.”
(The U.S., you may have heard, struggled mightily once it reached the final bracket, losing to France and Serbia in consecutive games and can no longer finish higher than seventh.)
Australia faces Spain in one FIBA semifinal and Argentina and France meet up in the other.
Fotu and the Tall Blacks kicked off competition with an enthusiastic haka.
New Zealand's basketball team doing the Haka is 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9hi2HdQVnl
— ESPN (@espn) September 5, 2019
New Zealand went 1-2 in the opening group stage, beating Montenegro but losing to Brazil and Greece, which knocked Fotu’s team into consolation play.
“Toughest challenge was just going up against some NBA superstars such as the Greek Freak (Giannis Antetokounmpo) and Nikola Vucevic (of Montenegro),” Fotu said.
The Tall Blacks wrapped up the tourney by beating Japan and then Turkey by a point (102-101) in their last game, a true consolation prize.
“Most memorable thing was probably beating Turkey. We have never beat them in FIBA competitions so it was a very memorable ending to the tournament,” Fotu said.
.@Ifotu42 thanks everyone for their support ahead of the @TallBlacks match against Turkey tonight.
The Tall Blacks need to put in a strong performance against Turkey if they are to have a chance at qualifying for the Olympics: https://t.co/yCA58b4iqI pic.twitter.com/m4zmrVtXgL
— RNZ (@radionz) September 9, 2019
Prior to group stage competition, Fotu talked to FIBA about his love competing for his native country and why he believes the 38th-ranked Tall Blacks will continue to rise in the world rankings.
And shoutout to everyone who supported us the whole way, appreciate each and every one of you! Definitely felt the love ✊🏽🇳🇿
— Isaac Fotu 🤙🏽 (@Ifotu42) September 10, 2019
Fotu’s New Zealand teammate Corey Webster (the son of former UH guard Tony Webster), led New Zealand with 22.8 points per game, second overall in the tournament.
>> Another former ‘Bow (and a former teammate of Fotu’s), Vander Joaquim of Angola, averaged 12.4 points and 5.0 rebounds as his native country went 1-4 to finish in 27th.
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