A look at a few former Lobos now playing overseas

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Four seasons spent with the Lobos brought some stability to the basketball career of Anthony Mathis, 27, a starter at New Mexico his last two years.

But since then, the West Linn, Oregon native has been on the move — and this past season was no different for the shooting guard. And transitions are part of life for American pro basketball players overseas, and that is the case for a handful of former Lobos.

Mathis began the 2023-24 season with a pro team in Estonia, near the Baltic Sea and north of Latvia. After averaging just 3.1 points per contest in seven domestic games and 9.3 in four FIBA Euro Cup events, he moved to a club in Sopron, Hungary in January.

He was much more effective in the top Hungarian league, as he averaged 12.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 14 games for Sopron, which is near the Austrian border and about 110 miles west of capital Budapest.

Sopron KC was eliminated in the quarterfinals three games to none by Alba, traditionally one of the strongest and richest clubs in Hungary.

Mathis, who had a season-high 20 points on Feb. 3, has also played pro ball in Greece, the NBA G League, Sweden, Romania and Canada.

He is among several former Lobos playing pro hoops around the world, from the top leagues in Europe to those in Asia and South America to minor leagues in North America.

Another former UNM starter to play in Europe this year was Corey Manigault, 25, who began the season in Lebanon before switching to a team in Bayreuth, Germany. He played 13 games in Germany and had a season-high 14 points on Feb. 10.

It has been an impressive comeback by Manigault, a native of Maryland who played at Paul VI Catholic in Virginia in the powerful Washington Catholic Athletic Conference. Manigault began his college career at Pittsburgh before averaging 12.5 points per contest with the Lobos in his second season with the school in 2019-20.

While playing in Cyprus in 2021, the 6-foot-9 power forward was attacked and seriously injured at a night club in Nicosia. A man was arrested on charges of attempted murder and soon after the attack the mother of Manigault told a television station in Washington, D.C. that her son was out of the ICU after he had been on a ventilator.

The UNM product returned to pro ball in Mexico in 2023. He also played pro ball in Bulgaria and Tunisia.

Other former Lobos, according to eurobasket.com, who played pro basketball during the 2023-24 season included Karim Ezzedine (Lebanon), Los Alamos native Alex Kirk (Japan), Nevada native Jamaal Smith (Venezuela), Tony Danridge (Chile, Uruguay), Makuach Maluach (Australia), Jachai Simmons (The Basketball League); Darington Hobson (Brazil); Carlton Bragg (Saudia Arabia); and Antino Jackson, who played this year in very different places: Mexico and Rwanda.

Ezzedine played for the Lobos during the 2018-19 season before turning pro. He has Lebanese roots and averaged 9.6 points per contest in domestic league play this season, with a season-high 25 points on May 20, and he was averaging 9.3 points per outing in the West Asia Super League in early June.

A center who was part of MWC title teams with the Lobos in 2013 and 2014, Kirk was averaging 7.3 points per contest in the Japan B1 League in early June. He also played for clubs in China, Italy, and Turkey. An all-MWC third-team member in 2014, his team was a finalist in the Emperor’s Cup in Japan earlier this season.

Smith was a two-year starter for the Lobos through 2008 and since then has also played in Brazil, China, Colombia, Mexico, and Romania. He averaged 14.5 points per contest for Botafogo this season.

A 6-foot-5 forward, Danridge averaged 14.9 points per contest in his last season with the Lobos in 2007-08. Since then, he has played professionally in Argentina, Lebanon, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

Maluach, a key four-year player through 2021 for UNM, had 23 points for Darwin S. on June 1 and has scored in double figures on a regular basis. His first pro season was in Finland, before his move to hoops Down Under.

Simmons, from New Jersey, played one season for the Lobos, and was averaging nearly 13 points per contest in early June for the Potawatomi Fire in TBL with his team in Oklahoma.

“I’m excited to have Jachai,” a Fire representative said on the team website when he joined the club.

A one-year starter for the Lobos in 2009-10, Hobson has played pro ball around the world — Argentina, Australia, China, the Dominican Republic, Greece, Iran, Israel and Italy.

Bragg was a two-year starter at UNM through 2020 and averaged 16.0 points per contest this season for Al Nassr. He has also laced them up in Czechia (Czech Republic), Poland, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, and Canada.

Mathis, who ended his college career with one season at Oregon, was one of about 50 Americans to play in the top men’s league in Hungary this season.

Another one of them Noah Locke, a Baltimore native, finished his college career at Connecticut and was one of the top scorers in the Hungarian league as a rookie pro.

“It was definitely a culture shock. I was nervous coming over there, but people live the same, people have the same things going on,” said Locke, who played for Szeged in southern Hungary.

David Driver, a Virginia native who now lives in Poland, lived for three years in Hungary with his family. He is the author of “Hoop Dreams in Europe: American Basketball Players Building Careers Overseas,” available on Amazon or the author’s website at daytondavid.com. He is the former sports editor of papers in Baltimore and in Arlington and Harrisonburg, Virginia.