Tristen Jamal Newton (born April 26, 2001) 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 the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves (often referred to as the Wolves or T-wolves) are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Divisio ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA), on a

two-way contract A two-way contract is a professional sports contract that stipulates that an athlete's salary is dependent upon the league in which the athlete is assigned to play. This is opposed to a one-way contract that would pay the same salary regardless o ...

with the

Iowa Wolves The Iowa Wolves are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Des Moines, Iowa, and are affiliated with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves play their home games at the Wells Fargo Arena and compete in the Western ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...

. 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

East Carolina Pirates The East Carolina Pirates are the sport, athletic teams that represent East Carolina University (ECU), located in Greenville, North Carolina. All varsity-level sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA ...

and with 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 ...

where he won both the 2023 and 2024 national championships.

High school career

Newton played at

Burges High School Burges High School in El Paso, Texas, United States, is a comprehensive high school in the El Paso Independent School District. It is located in the Cielo Vista neighborhood on the near east side of El Paso, north of the large shopping center ...

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

, where his team routinely traveled great distances to play top teams in the large metro areas of Texas. Newton scored 3,266 points in high school and led the state in scoring as a senior at 37.2

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player or team per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of poi ...

College career

Newton found success at East Carolina, entering the starting lineup as a freshman and averaging 11 points and 3.7 assists per game. He set the Pirates' program record for assists in a season by a freshman. He improved for his next two seasons, culminating in a junior season where he averaged 17.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5 assists per game. He was named to the All-

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

(AAC) second team at the close of the season. Following the dismissal of his coach

Joe Dooley Joseph Dooley may refer to: *Joseph Brannon Dooley (1889–1967), United States federal judge *Joe Dooley (basketball) (born 1966), basketball player *Joe Dooley (Seir Kieran hurler) (born 1963), Irish hurling manager and former player *Joe Doo ...

after the 2021–22 season, Newton decided to transfer from East Carolina. He heard from over 30 schools after putting his name in the NCAA transfer portal, ultimately choosing 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), where coach

Dan Hurley Daniel S. Hurley (born January 16, 1973) is an American men's college basketball coach who is the head coach of the UConn Huskies. In 2023 and 2024, Hurley led UConn to back-to-back NCAA Division I national championships. He previously coached ...

saw his playmaking as a missing piece for his

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

team. Newton earned the starting

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

role and became the second player in program history to record two

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

s, joining

Shabazz Napier Shabazz Bozie Napier (born July 14, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for Bayern Munich of the German Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and the EuroLeague. He was drafted 24th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2014 NBA draft a ...

. At the close of the season, Newton helped lead the Huskies to the sixth Final Four in school history and later, with a double-double, to UConn's fifth NCAA championship in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

. Newton returned to the program for the 2023–24 season after initially declaring for the

2023 NBA draft The 2023 NBA draft, the 77th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on June 22, 2023, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The draft consisted of 58 picks instead of the typical 60 for the second ...

. During a game against

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, Newton notched his third triple-double of his career with the Huskies, becoming the first player in program history to do so. He notched his fourth triple-double of his career against Villanova, becoming the first power conference player to have four or more triple-doubles since

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

recorded six. In the NCAA tournament, he led the Huskies to back-to-back championships, was named the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) of the tournament, and became a member of the

Huskies of Honor Huskies of Honor is a recognition program sponsored by the University of Connecticut (UConn). Similar to a hall of fame, it honors the most significant figures in the history of the UConn Huskies—the university's athletic teams—espec ...

Professional career

On June 27, 2024, Newton was selected with the 49th overall pick by the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

in the

2024 NBA draft The 2024 NBA draft was the 78th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft. Unlike recent years, the 2024 draft took place over two nights. This was the first NBA draft to be held on multiple nights since the draft ...

and on July 27, he signed a

with them. However, On January 1, 2025, he was waived by the Pacers. On January 3, 2025, Newton was claimed off waivers by the

, retaining his

status.

Career statistics

NBA

Regular season

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

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, 5 , , 0 , , 1.6 , , .167 , , .000 , , 1.000 , , .0 , , .2 , , .0 , , .0 , , .6 , - , style="text-align:left;",

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, 3 , , 0 , , 2.7 , , .000 , , , , , , 1.3 , , .3 , , .3 , , .0 , , .0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 8 , , 0 , , 2.0 , , .125 , , .000 , , 1.000 , , .5 , , .3 , , .1 , , .0 , , .4

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of universities in North Carolina by enrollment, fourth largest university in North Carolina and the only one in the state with s ...

, 31 , , 19 , , 29.9 , , .390 , , .324 , , .802 , , 4.5 , , 3.7 , , 1.2 , , .3 , , 11.0 , - , 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;",

, 17 , , 16 , , 31.5 , , .348 , , .262 , , .895 , , 4.3 , , 4.2 , , 1.2 , , .3 , , 8.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 30 , , 34.8 , , .435 , , .333 , , .879 , , 4.8 , , 5.0 , , 1.4 , , .3 , , 17.7 , - , 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;",

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, ...

, 39 , , 38 , , 28.8 , , .374 , , .366 , , .816 , , 4.5 , , 4.7 , , 1.1 , , .3 , , 10.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

, 40 , , 40 , , 33.2 , , .415 , , .321 , , .808 , , 6.6 , , 6.2 , , .9 , , .3 , , 15.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 157 , , 143 , , 31.6 , , .402 , , .327 , , .831 , , 5.1 , , 4.9 , , 1.2 , , .3 , , 12.8

Personal life

Newton's older brother, Jawaun, played college basketball for

Evansville Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...

and

Southern Illinois Southern Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally south of Interstate 70. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two List of U.S. rivers by discharge, most voluminous ri ...

. He is a cousin of football players

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

and Alvin Jones.

References

External links

UConn Huskies bioEast Carolina Pirates bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Tristen 2001 births Living people 21st-century American sportsmen All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from El Paso, Texas Burges High School alumni East Carolina Pirates men's basketball players Indiana Mad Ants players Indiana Pacers draft picks Indiana Pacers players Iowa Wolves players Minnesota Timberwolves players Point guards Basketball players from Pensacola, Florida UConn Huskies men's basketball players