basketball
A decade in the game — UC San Diego, professional ball in Canada and Germany, and coaching.
Before I was a scientist, I was a basketball player. I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, came up as a 6’4” guard, and spent the better part of a decade in the game — as a college player, a professional, and eventually a coach. It shaped almost everything about how I work today: the discipline, the comfort with pressure, and the belief that you get good at hard things by showing up every single day.
College — UC San Diego Tritons (2013–2017)
I played four years at UC San Diego while studying bioengineering, and captained the team as an upperclassman. By the time I graduated I left as the program’s Division II career leader in points, rebounds, field goals made, field goals attempted, free throws attempted, games played, and minutes played — and was just the second Triton in the D-II era to record 1,000+ career points and 500+ rebounds.
- 1,524 career points (12.9 per game), 625 rebounds, 338 assists across 118 games
- CCAA Player of the Year, All-CCAA First Team, and NABC All-West District First Team as a senior
- NCAA West Regional All-Tournament Team and CCAA Tournament MVP
- San Diego Hall of Champions Amateur Star of the Year
I’m just as proud of the work off the court: a 4.0 GPA in bioengineering earned CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year, CCAA Scholar-Athlete of the Year, an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and UCSD Athlete of the Year.
Professional (2017–2019)
After UCSD I signed to play professionally and spent two seasons overseas.
- Niagara River Lions — National Basketball League of Canada (St. Catharines, Ontario), 2017–2018. My first season as a pro.
- Giessen 46ers — Basketball Bundesliga, Germany, 2018–2019. I averaged 11.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game, shooting 44% from three.
Coaching — UC San Diego Men’s Basketball (2019–2021)
When I came back to San Diego to start my PhD, I stayed close to the game as a graduate assistant coach for UC San Diego men’s basketball. Coaching taught me the other side of the sport — preparation, player development, and how to get the best out of a group — during the same years I was learning to do research.
What the game gave me
Two pro seasons, a transcontinental move, and the strange pivot from the locker room to the lab — I’ve written about all of it on my blog:
- UCSD Undergrad: 2013–2017
- What’s a River Lion? Winter 2017–Spring 2018
- Ich bin ein Rackelos? Fall 2018–Winter 2019
- The Deep Breath Before the Plunge: Spring–Summer 2019
Always happy to talk hoops — whether you knew me from the Tritons, want to connect over the game, or just want to say hi. Reach me at adamklie13@gmail.com.