Walter Hodge

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Basketball player
Walter Hodge
Hodge Walter - Mecz Gwiazd PLK 2012.jpg
Hodge near Zastal Zielona Góra (2012)
Player information
Full name Walter Wallace Hodge
birthday 21st September 1986 (age 33)
place of birth Guaynabo , Puerto Rico
size 183 cm
position Point guard
college Florida
Clubs as active
2005–2009 Florida Gators ( NCAA ) 2010 Capitanes de Puerto Rico ( PBL ) 2010 Cangrejeros de Santurce ( BSN ) 2010–2013 Zastal Zielona Góra → 2011 Cangrejeros de Santurce 2013–2014 Laboral Kutxa Since 2014 Zenit St.PetersburgUnited StatesUnited States
00000Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
00000Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
PolandPoland
000Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
SpainSpain
0RussiaRussia
National team
000000000 American Virgin IslandsAmerican Virgin Islands American Virgin Islands

Walter Wallace Hodge (born September 21, 1986 in Guaynabo ) is an American - Puerto Rican basketball player . Hodge played successfully while studying basketball in the United States and became a two-time NCAA Master with the Gators of the University of Florida . As a professional, he was initially active in his native country and from 2010 played for three years for the club from Zielona Góra in the Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK), where he was named the most valuable player ( MVP ) of the regular season in the 2011/12 season and won the Polish championship with this club in 2013. Since the 2013/14 season, Hodge, who plays internationally for his grandfather's native American Virgin Islands, has been playing in the Spanish ACB league for the Basque club Laboral Kutxa from Vitoria-Gasteiz .

Career

High school and college

Before beginning his studies in the United States, Hodge graduated from high school at the Florida Air Academy in Melbourne (Florida) , where he played until 2004 with the future Russian national player Sascha Kaun . In 2005 Hodge was able to begin studying and stayed in Florida, where he studied at the University of Florida and played for the Gators in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) of the NCAA college league .

Hodge alongside college coaches Billy Donovan and George W. Bush (2007)

In its first two seasons for the Gators, the very talented team won the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship for the first time in the history of this college team in 2006 and was able to repeat the championship the following year. The entire starting lineup of the Gators was then almost up to Lee Humphrey in the 2007 NBA draft selected, with Al Horford , Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah were among the top ten players in the Entry Draft were selected during next Taurean Green substitute Chris Richard in the second round was chosen.

After this bloodletting, the Gators could not qualify for the finals of the NCAA in the following two seasons, when the Jayhawks of the University of Kansas to Hodge 'schoolmate Sascha Kaun succeeded the Gators in 2008 as title winners. Five players were also selected by the Jayhawks in the 2008 NBA draft , but none of the top ten “ picks ”. Instead, the Gators received twice an invitation to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), where they were eliminated in the 2008 NIT Final Four in the semifinals. After completing his studies in 2009, Hodge was not selected by an NBA club in the draft despite his largely successful college career.

Professional career

After Hodge took part in the 2009 American Basketball Championship for the US Virgin Islands in the summer of 2009 , where the national team remained without a win, he played in early 2010 for the Capitanes from Arecibo in his native country, which was the first time on the US mainland at the championship of the Premier Basketball League (PBL), a minor league , participated. The Capitanes were excluded from the league again after a few games in March 2010. Hodge then played in the Puerto Rican league Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) for the Cangrejeros from Santurce . But his former club Capitanes was able to successfully defend the 2010 BSN championship. Then Hodge moved to Europe and played for the Zastal from Zielona Góra in the PLK. After narrowly missing the play-offs for the Polish championship in the 2010/11 season , Hodge first played again in the BSN for Cangrejeros in the summer of 2011, but they did not reach the championship finals. At the Caribbean Championships in 2011, he won the final against hosts Bahamas with the US Virgin Islands national team . At the start of the European season he returned to Zielona Góra and was named MVP of the regular season in the PLK. With Zastal he was eliminated in the semi-final play-offs for the championship. Then, as in 2010, he was the top scorer of the tournament in his native country at the Central American Championships 2012, in which the national teams of Central America including Mexico participate .

In the 2012/13 season, Hodge and Stelmet, as the club from Zielona Góra was called for sponsorship reasons this season, took part in the European club competition Eurocup 2012/13 , where they barely made it into the knockout games in the quarter-finals failed. As the most effective player of the last two intermediate round match days, Hodge was named MVP of the match day and was the first player in two years to achieve this award on two match days in a row. In the Polish league they won the championship for the club for the first time. Then Hodge signed a contract with the Basque club Laboral Kutxa in the ACB League, which is also a permanent participant in the highest European club competition ULEB Euroleague . Still, Hodge is said to be playing for the New York Knicks in the 2013 NBA Summer League . After a place in the Puerto Rican national team seemed to be blocked by players like Filiberto Rivera , Carlos Arroyo and JJ Barea and Hodge therefore registered for the US Virgin Islands, he now expressed his desire to play for the national team of his country of birth.

Web links

Commons : Walter Hodge  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to information in the FIBA player archive , Hodge was born in Río Piedras , part of the capital San Juan .
  2. ↑ 2010 Centro Basket Championship for Men. FIBA , accessed on June 23, 2013 (English, tournament overview in the competition archive).
  3. ↑ 2012 Centro Basket Championship for Men. FIBA , accessed on June 23, 2013 (English, tournament overview in the competition archive).
  4. ↑ Last 16 Week 6 MVP: Walter Hodge, Stelmet Zielona Gora. ULEB , February 21, 2013, accessed June 23, 2013 .
  5. ↑ LABORAL KUTXA lands playmaker Hodge as first signing of summer. (No longer available online.) ULEB , June 5, 2013, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 23, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.euroleague.net
  6. ^ Noel Piñeiro: Walter Hodge: en la mira de los Knicks. PrimeraHora.com, June 20, 2013, accessed June 23, 2013 (Spanish).
  7. ^ Noel Piñeiro: Walter Hodge quiere jugar con Puerto Rico. PrimeraHora.com, June 20, 2013, accessed June 23, 2013 (Spanish).
personal data
SURNAME Hodge, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hodge, Walter Wallace (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Puerto Rican basketball player
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH Guaynabo , Puerto Rico