Kalif Young officially finished the first chapter of his professional basketball career, playing 8 games for the Hamilton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League in a bit of shortened season for the CEBL.  Shortly after being rumored to be close to an agreement with Bornova Belediye in Turkey, Kalif turned around and returned very close to home in his native Canada to kick off his pro career.  Now, after getting some experience under his belt, Young officially heads off to Turkey to continue his basketball journey.

Of course, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in Friartown, being the good dude that he is, Kalif thanked Hamilton for giving him his first shot.

I just want to say thank you to the @HM_HoneyBadgers and the @CEBLeague for making my first pro experience a truly memorable one. I know we didn’t get the result we wanted but the connections that were built and all the knowledge that was gained was truly invaluable! 🙏🏾🖤💛

— Kalif Young (@youngkalif13) August 9, 2020

 

For whatever reason, the CEBL only has season statistics tallied for last season and not this year’s so I went game by game (thankfully there were only 8) to get the stats for Kalif during his time with the Honey Badgers.

Game by Game Log:

Game 1: 8:33 mins, 0 pts (0-0), 2 rebs, 1 blk

Game 2: 15:29 mins, 8 pts (3-5 FG, 2-2 FT), 3 rebs, 2 stls, 1 blk

Game 3: 21:35 mins (start), 6 pts (3-6 FG), 7 rebs (led team), 1 stl, 1 blk

Game 4: 14:20 mins, 6 pts (3-4 FG), 4 rebs

Game 5: 20:35 mins, 4 pts (2-4 FGs), 5 rebs, 1 ast, 1 blk

Game 6: 26:45 mins (start), 13 pts (5-9 FG, 2-2 FT, 1-2 3pts), 10 rebs (team high), 5 asts, 1 stl

Game 7: 32:53 mins (start), 13 pts (5-7 FG, 2-3 FT, 1-1 3pts), 8 rebs (team high), 3 asts, 3 stls

Game 8: 30:59 mins (start), 11 pts (4-6 FG, 3-6 FT, 0-1 3pts), 6 rebs, 2 asts, 2 stls

Season Statistics (averages):

8 games: 6.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.5 bpg

25/41 FGs (61%), 9/13 FTs (69.2%), 2/4 3FG (50%)

Young’s shooting percentages, although in a small sample size, are extremely encouraging.  To put them in perspective to his Senior season at Providence, over 31 games, Young averaged 5.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.6 bpg with shooting splits of 52% FG / 55.1% FT / 50% 3FG (2 attempts).  Not only are his per game averages better but more importantly and impressively, his shooting percentages are as well.  In 8 games, he took twice as many threes as he did in 31 games over his Senior season.

To make things even better, in the 4 games that Young started and saw slightly more minutes on the court, his numbers looked even better.

4 games: 10.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg (led team 3x), 2.5 apg, 1.8 spg

17/28 FGs (60.7%), 7/11 FTs (63.7%), 2/4 3FG (50%)

He was able to keep his percentages around the same level and see upticks in all his averages across the board.

Good luck to our very own, Kalif Young!

Young is leaving to join his new team, Bornova Belediyespor of the Turkish First League tonight! 🇹🇷🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/ZTe9Zss6Oj

— Hamilton Honey Badgers (@HM_HoneyBadgers) August 11, 2020

Best of luck to Kalif with his next team over in Turkey and I’m just crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to somehow stream some games from over there.  I was able to download twitch (I’m old) and catch parts of some of his games in the CEBL, so hopefully there’s something similar like that.

Once A Friar, Always A Friar…