Lucas Woodhouse, the Stony Brook men’s basketball team’s leading scorer last season, signed a professional contract on Saturday with Kobrat, a team located in Lapua, Finland within the top Finnish league, Korisliiga. Woodhouse joins Roland Nyama as the second player on the 2016-17 roster to sign a professional contract overseas.
“It’s definitely a place where I can go to right away and play a ton of minutes, and prove myself on the pro level,” Woodhouse said. “[Head coach Lars Ekstrom] contacted me, we had a nice conversation and he thought I was the right fit for the team.”
The team finished last season with a 17-19 overall record and a loss in the first round of the 2017 Korisliiga playoffs. Kobrat’s 2017-18 season will begin on Sept. 29. Woodhouse expects to step in and become a major contributor with the team right away.
“I think I’m an experienced player,” Woodhouse said. “I have been prepared with the help of my multiple coaches, different teams and the different offenses that each team brought. So I think I can learn the offense quick.”
Former member of Kobrat and the University of Arizona men’s basketball team Kyle Fogg played in Lapua during the 2013-14 season. Fogg averaged 13.5 points per game on .444 percent shooting from beyond the arc in his final season with the Wildcats. However, he averaged 27 points per game and was named the 2014 Korisliiga MVP in his first and only season with the team.
Woodhouse, who finished his senior year averaging 15.1 points per game on .458 percent shooting from three-point range, is hoping to have a similar impact in the Scandinavian country.
“It will be my first time [there],” Woodhouse said. “I know it’s really cold there and it gets dark during the day, so I’m probably just gonna stay warm and just be ready for the harsh winter. But the coach said the people learn to adapt to it so it doesn’t affect daily life.”
Lapua reaches average temperatures of 17-20 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, but luckily for Woodhouse, it will not be too cold when he arrives on Sept. 1.
Correction: Aug. 20, 2017
In a previous version of this story, The Statesman reported that the head coach of Kobrat is Derrick Crayton. Lars Ekstrom is the head coach of the team.
