VERMILLION, S.D. — South Dakota men's basketball head coach Eric Peterson has announced the addition of Kajus Kublickas to the 2026-27 roster.
The 6'2 guard transfers in from the University of the Pacific with one year of eligibility remaining. He was previously at the University of Florida from 2023-25 and was a part of the 2024-25 Gators team that won the NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship.
Kublickas appeared in all 33 games for the Tigers last year and made nine straight starts from November 24 to December 28. He averaged 5.6 points and 3.0 assists per game and was second on the team with 100 assists on the season. Kublickas scored a career high 15 points in a win at Oregon State and had six double-digit scoring efforts on the year. He tallied 14 points and had three steals against BYU, who was ranked No. 10 in the nation at the time. He dished out a career high 13 assists against Simpson (California) and put together back-to-back games where he had eight and seven assists against Portland and San Francisco, respectively.
He played in 15 games over two seasons with the Gators and recorded 11 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and a steal. He appeared in six games for the 2024-25 National Championship team and had four points and seven rebounds. Kublickas scored seven points in nine appearances as a true freshman.
The Kaunas, Lithuania native has experience playing at the international level for the Lithuanian national team most recently at the FIBA U20 EuroBasket where he averaged 11.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists to help his team to a 5-2 record and fifth place finish in 2024. He also competed with the national team at the FIBA U20 European Championships in 2023 where the team finished in eighth place. He averaged 6.3 points and a team leading 3.1 assists. He posted a 8.3 points and team high 4.4 assists per game averaged at the 2022 U18 European Championships in 2022 as Lithuania finished seventh.
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