AMES, Iowa – Iowa State head men’s basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger has announced the signing of Washington State transfer Aljaž Kunc (Ollie-ahj Coon-ce), a 6-8 forward from Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Kunc, who goes by Jaz, is the first to sign under Otzelberger, who was named head coach last Thursday. He is a graduate transfer and will have two years to play.
“Jaz is a skilled frontline player, who has proven at the Power-5 level to have the ability to knock down threes and stretch opposing defenses,” Otzelberger said. “Defensively, he competes and has a high activity level and is able to rebound outside his area.”
Kunc battled an ankle injury most of last season and averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in 23 games.
Once healthy, Kunc saw his minutes increase to 30 per game and averaged 8.9 points and 7.4 rebounds, reaching double figures in five of the season’s final eight contests.
Kunc scored 15 points in the regular-season finale at Arizona State and had a career-high 14 boards in a win at Arizona late in the season.
He is a career 79.5 percent free-throw shooter after hitting 87.2 percent of his shots at the charity stripe in 2020-21.
Kunc graduated from Elevation Preparatory Academy in Sarasota, Florida in 2018 after coming to the United States from Slovenia to complete his final year of high school. He has international experience playing with Slovenia in the 2016 FIBA U18 European Championships.
