Canterbury basketballer Quinn Clinton has committed to play at the University of New Mexico.
The Christchurch Boys' High School point guard announced the move on Twitter today, thanking his family, friends and coaches.
The team plays in the Mountain West Conference, one of the country's top mid-major conferences. Others to have gone there include Danny Granger, Luc Longley and Michael Cooper.
Clinton, a 190cm guard, has been one of the top prospects in New Zealand basketball for several years and already has an impressive CV. He made his NBL debut with the Canterbury Rams in 2015, before playing seven games for the side this year. At age-grade and school tournaments he has been among the most dominant players, while on the international stage he has proven his worth against Australia U16 and U18, as well as at adidas nations.
Most recently he was part of the Junior Tall Blacks team which beat for the first time Australia to qualify for the under-19 world championships. In that game Clinton hit two three-pointers down the stretch to get New Zealand home.
He has also impressed for the Mainland Eagles, for whom he played at the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas last year, as well as against the University of Washington in an exhibition game in Christchurch this year.
Clinton shoots the ball well from the outside and handles the ball well, possessing high basketball IQ and a low error-rate.
He is the third player from this year's Junior Tall Blacks class to get a division one scholarship, with North Harbour's Sam Waardenburg signed for the University of Miami and Auckland's Taki Fahrensohn headed to the University of Portland. It would not be a surprise to see several others from that team take the college route too.
