Maik-Kalev Kotsar (born 22 December 1996) is an Estonian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for the

Yokohama B-Corsairs The are a Japanese professional basketball team that compete in the first division of the B.League. Following the team's establishment in 2010, they participated in the Eastern Conference of the bj league for five seasons and in 2013 became the ...

of the Japanese B.League. He played two seasons for

Saski Baskonia Club Deportivo Saski-Baskonia, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D commonly known as Saski Baskonia () and also simply as Baskonia, is a professional basketball team based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLea ...

of the Spanish

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administered by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, w ...

and the

EuroLeague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for

South Carolina Gamecocks The South Carolina Gamecocks represent the University of South Carolina in the NCAA Division I. The University of South Carolina uses "Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. While the men's teams were traditionally known as the Fight ...

. Kotsar also has played for the

Estonia men's national basketball team The Estonia men's national basketball team () represents Estonia in international basketball matches. They are controlled by the Estonian Basketball Association. The team competed in their first international tournament at the 1936 Olympic Ga ...

as well as the Estonia men's national 3x3 team. Listed at and , he plays the

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

position.

College career

On 7 March 2016, Kotsar committed to play for the

. In his freshman year, Kotsar saw action in all 37 games with 33 starts, averaging 5.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game as South Carolina advanced to its first-ever Final Four, losing 73–77 to

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

. Kotsar earned second-team All- SEC honors after averaging 11.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks per game during his senior season.

Maik Kotsar attended the University of South Carolina's

Darla Moore School of Business Darla is a female given name of English origin which is a variant of Darlene. Darla means “Darling” Darla may refer to: People * Darla K. Anderson (), American film producer * Darla Hood (1931–1979), American child actress, best known for ...

. He majored in

Finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

and minored in

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

. By the time of his graduation he had been named to the President's List, was on the Athletics Director's Honor Roll and had been named to the SEC Honor Roll all four years, and was named to the NABC (

National Association of Basketball Coaches The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is an American organization of men's college basketball coaches. It was founded in 1927 by Phog Allen, the men's basketball head coach for the Univ ...

) Honors Court. Possibly his most notable academic achievement came his senior year when he was named University of South Carolina's Male Scholar Athlete of the Year. This award is given each year to one graduating senior with exceptional and outstanding academic achievement.

Professional career

On 16 August 2020, Kotsar signed with the

Hamburg Towers Hamburg Towers, for sponsorship reasons named Veolia Towers Hamburg, is a professional basketball team, based in Hamburg, Germany. After promotion from the ProA in 2019, the Towers are currently playing in the Basketball Bundesliga, the top tier ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

. In both seasons with the Hamburg side, he averaged 14.2 points per game in Bundesliga play. On 25 July 2022, he put pen to paper on a deal with

of the Spanish

. Kotsar recorded 21 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block in his

debut in Baskonia's 81–71 victory over

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. With the PIR of 31, he became the MVP of the first round. His second MVP of the round came from a 93–87 victory over

ALBA Berlin Alba Berlin is a professional basketball club that is based in Berlin, Germany. The club was founded in 1991, and is today the largest German national basketball club by membership figures. Alba Berlin hosts its home games at the Uber Arena and c ...

on 28 March 2023 recording 23 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a PIR of 40. In July 2024, Kotsar moved to Japan after signing with

in the B.League 1. He will reunite with his former national team coach

Jukka Toijala Jukka Toijala (born 9 May 1972) is a Finnish professional basketball coach and former player, who is currently working as the assistant coach of the Yokohama B-Corsairs in Japan's B.League. Previously he worked as the head coach of the Estonia n ...

National team career

Kotsar made his debut for the Estonian national team on 29 June 2018, in a

2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 18th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 31 August to 15 September 2019. The tournament was hosted in China and was rescheduled from 2018 to 2019, b ...

qualifier against

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, scoring 8 points in a 65–74 away defeat.

3x3

Kotsar's 3x3 career started in the U18 division in 2013 with the Sprite Streetball 2013 Tallinn tournament where he advanced to the U18 Estonia Finals and eventually the 2013 FIBA 3x3 World Championships on September 26, 2013. Kotsar continued to compete 3x3 through 2014 and 2015. His FIBA 3x3 career returned from hiatus in 2018 Ghetto Basket Pro Camp in Riga on May 10 of that year. His team would advance all the way to the

FIBA 3x3 World Cup The FIBA 3x3 World Cup is a 3x3 (basketball), 3x3 basketball tournament for national teams organized by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). The debut of the tournament originally named as the FIBA 3x3 World Championship was held in Au ...

tournament. Kotsar's Estonia Men's 3x3 team would be defeated by the Poland national 3x3 team who would themselves go on to win 3rd place in the entire tournament after being eliminated in the semifinals. The Estonian 3x3 Men's Team's run came to an end at the preliminary stage pools at 3rd place of the

2018 FIBA 3x3 World Cup – Men's tournament The 2018 FIBA 3x3 World Cup was held in Bocaue in the Manila region, Philippines, and was contested by 20 teams. Participating teams All five FIBA zones were represented. The top 20 teams, including the hosts, based on the FIBA National Federati ...

and they took home 9th place.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;" rowspan="2",

Baskonia Club Deportivo Saski-Baskonia, S.A.D commonly known as Saski Baskonia () and also simply as Baskonia, is a professional basketball team based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. History 1959–1969 ...

, 34 , , 28 , , 20.25 , , .658 , , , , 0.575 , , 4.3 , , 1.4 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 9.3 , , 13.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , 39 , , 29 , , 18.05 , , .518 , , , , 0.687 , , 3.3 , , 1.2 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 5.6 , , 7.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 73 , , 57 , , 19.10 , , .588 , , , , 0.631 , , 3.8 , , 1.3 , , 0.7 , , 0.3 , , 7.3 , , 10.4

EuroCup

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 16 , , 6 , , 26.8 , , .604 , , , , .667 , , 6.6 , , 1.4 , , 1.2 , , 0.3 , , 13.4 , , 17.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 16 , , 6 , , 26.8 , , .604 , , , , .667 , , 6.6 , , 1.4 , , 1.2 , , 0.3 , , 13.4 , , 17.2

Domestic leagues

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:100%; text-align:right;" ! Year ! Team ! League ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", BBL , , 36 , , 29.3 , , .577 , , .000 , , .727 , , 6.6 , , 1.7 , , 1.1 , , .3 , , 14.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", BBL , , 34 , , 27.6 , , .613 , , .000 , , .671 , , 7.6 , , 1.9 , , .8 , , .2 , , 14.2 , - , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 34 , , 20.3 , , .614 , , .000 , , .718 , , 5.0 , , 1.5 , , .7 , , .3 , , 9.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 33 , , 17.6 , , .585 , , .333 , , .612 , , 3.2 , , 1.3 , , .6 , , .2 , , 6.5

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, 37 , , 33 , , 23.9 , , .490 , , , , .396 , , 4.8 , , .7 , , .7 , , .4 , , 5.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 33 , , 26.5 , , .426 , , .222 , , .566 , , 4.8 , , 1.4 , , .9 , , .5 , , 8.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 24 , , 23.4 , , .438 , , .500 , , .443 , , 4.7 , , .9 , , 1.0 , , .9 , , 6.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 31 , , 30.5 , , .497 , , .000 , , .690 , , 6.3 , , 2.3 , , 1.5 , , 1.1 , , 11.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 131 , , 121 , , 26.0 , , .464 , , .265 , , .541 , , 5.1 , , 1.3 , , 1.0 , , .7 , , 7.8

References

External links

*
Maik Kotsar
at euroleaguebasketball.net
South Carolina Gamecocks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotsar, Maik 1996 births Living people Basketball players from Tallinn Centers (basketball) Estonian expatriate basketball people in Germany Estonian expatriate basketball people in Spain Estonian expatriate basketball people in the United States Estonian men's basketball players Hamburg Towers players Korvpalli Meistriliiga players Power forwards Saski Baskonia players South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball players Estonian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate basketball people in Japan Yokohama B-Corsairs players 21st-century Estonian sportsmen