San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said this week that Joshua Tomaić will join the men’s basketball program.
The 6-10, 235-pound forward has one year of eligibility remaining. He is available to play immediately.
Dutcher called the graduate transfer from Maryland “the next in a long line of Aztec bigs that are long, athletic and versatile.” He compared Tomaić to one of two transfer standouts from last season’s team, Yanni Wetzell.
“He can shoot the three, score on the block and handle the basketball,” Dutcher said.
Tomaić called SDSU “the perfect place to finish my college career.”
“During the recruiting process, I felt that I developed a real good relationship with Coach Dutcher and the entire staff,” he said. “I like the style of basketball the team plays. It relates well to my game and the school was another big draw.”
Like Wetzell, Tomaić, a native of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, also hails from abroad. Upon signing with Maryland, he was reported to be the first Canarian to compete for an NCAA basketball program.
Prior to arriving in the U.S., he played at Canarias Basketball Academy (CBA). He averaged 19 points and 12 rebounds per game for the CBA U18 team. That squad placed fifth in the Spanish National Championships.
Tomaić redshirted his freshman season at Maryland, in 2016-17. He then represented Spain in the 2017 FIBA Americas U19 Championships in Cairo.
In his four seasons as a Terrapin, the team reached the postseason in 2017 and 2019, posting a 1-2 record in the NCAA Tournament. Maryland, with a 4-7 record, anticipated securing a berth in the 2020 NCAA Tournament. Officials canceled the event though, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the U.S.
San Diego State, which won the regular-season Mountain West championship, finished the campaign with a 30-2 record.
Tomaić appeared in 62 games, including two starts, and averaged 1.3 points and 1.1 rebounds in 5.7 minutes per appearance. He has been successful on 62.7% of his career field goal attempts, and posted a high of 72.7% last season.
The new Aztec addition also speaks Spanish, English, German and Croatian. This summer, he will earn his undergraduate degree in information science. Tomaić, though, has not decided what his course work will be in his master’s program.
– Staff reports