R. J. Cole (born August 24, 1999) is an American 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

Umana Reyer Venezia S.S.P. Reyer Venezia Mestre, commonly known as Reyer Venezia or simply Reyer, is an Italian professional basketball club that is based in Venice, Veneto. The club currently plays in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA), the Italian basketball league sys ...

of the Italian

Lega Basket Serie A The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...

(LBA). 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 the

Howard Bison The Howard Bison and Lady Bison are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Howard University, located in Washington, D.C. The Bison compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s and Division I Footba ...

and the

UConn Huskies The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, with its main campus located in Storrs, Connecticut. The school is a member of ...

Early life

Cole attended basketball powerhouse St. Anthony High School. He was ranked a three-star prospect and maintained a 4.0 grade point average. Cole turned down offers from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

and

Monmouth Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...

to play at

Howard Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...

, where he believed he could make an immediate impact.

College career

As a freshman at Howard, Cole averaged 23.7 points per game and 6.2 assists per game, leading the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and the Mid-A ...

in both categories. He scored 42 against

UNC Wilmington The University of North Carolina Wilmington, or University of North Carolina at Wilmington, (UNC Wilmington or UNCW) is a public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system and enrol ...

on December 22, 2017; one of his five games in excess of 30 points. Cole was named to the First Team All-MEAC and MEAC Rookie of the Year. As a sophomore, Cole was named MEAC Player of the Week on five occasions. He had a season-high 36 points in the regular-season finale versus Norfolk State. Cole led the MEAC in scoring with 21.4 points per game. He was named the MEAC Player of the Year and was an

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

Honorable Mention All-American. Cole led Howard to the

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI sel ...

, where the team fell to Coastal Carolina despite 14 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals from Cole. After the season, Cole declared for the

2019 NBA draft The 2019 NBA draft was held on June 20, 2019. It took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible p ...

but did not hire an agent, which left him with the option to withdraw from the draft and return to school for his junior year. After withdrawing from the draft, Cole transferred to the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

(UConn). He chose UConn over

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

and

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

. As a junior, Cole averaged 12.2 points, 4.3 assists, and three rebounds per game in a complementary role to

James Bouknight James David Bouknight ( ; born September 18, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the Rip City Remix of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for the UConn Huskies. Early life Bouknight grew up in Crown Heights, Broo ...

. On December 21, 2021, Cole reached 2,000 career points in a win against Marquette. He was named to the First Team All-Big East.

Professional career

On July 22, 2022, Cole signed his first professional contract with Greek club

Lavrio Lavrio, Lavrion or Laurium (; (later ); from Middle Ages until 1908: Εργαστήρια ''Ergastiria'') is a town in southeastern part of Attica, Greece. It is part of Athens metropolitan area and the seat of the municipality of Lavreotiki ...

. In 20 GBL games, he averaged 13.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1 steal, playing around 30 minutes per contest. On March 31, 2023, Cole moved to German club

Löwen Braunschweig Löwen, literally meaning "lions", may refer to: Music *Lowen (band), an English heavy metal band from London Places *Leuven or , the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium *Lewin Brzeski or ...

for the rest of the season. On July 26, 2023, Cole signed a two-year (1+1) contract with Rytas Vilnius of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

(LKL). On June 30, 2025, Cole signed with

of the Italian

(LBA).

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 32 , , 37.9 , , .394 , , .359 , , .770 , , 3.9 , , 6.1 , , 1.7 , , .0 , , 23.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 34 , , 33 , , 35.6 , , .415 , , .387 , , .819 , , 4.1 , , 6.4 , , 1.9 , , .0 , , 21.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Redshirt , - , 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;",

, 23 , , 21 , , 31.1 , , .387 , , .386 , , .770 , , 3.0 , , 4.3 , , 1.2 , , .0 , , 12.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 33 , , 33.5 , , .415 , , .339 , , .858 , , 3.4 , , 4.1 , , 1.1 , , .1 , , 15.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 123 , , 119 , , 34.8 , , .404 , , .366 , , .804 , , 3.7 , , 5.3 , , 1.5 , , .0 , , 18.8

References

External links

*
Proballers profileUConn Huskies bioHoward Bison bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, R. J. 1999 births Living people American men's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Germany American expatriate basketball people in Greece American expatriate basketball people in Lithuania Basketball players from Jersey City, New Jersey Basketball Löwen Braunschweig players BC Rytas players Howard Bison men's basketball players Lavrio B.C. players Point guards Shooting guards UConn Huskies men's basketball players 21st-century American sportsmen