Tyler Cain (born June 30, 1988) is an American basketball player who last played for Derthona Basket 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

University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is t ...

(USD). He is best known for being the inaugural winner of the Great West Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year award in 2009–10, the conference's first as a Division I basketball league. As a senior that season, Cain became the second player in USD history to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. He is also USD's all-time leading shot blocker after compiling 361 during his career.

Early life

Cain was born in

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. It is located along rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a popul ...

to parents Richard and Laurie and sister Erica. He attended John Marshall High School in his hometown where he was a star basketball player. Cain was twice named all-conference and once named honorable mention all-state. He was on the list for

Minnesota Mr. Basketball Minnesota Mr. Basketball is an annual award recognizing excellence in Minnesota boys' high school basketball. The female equivalent is Minnesota Miss Basketball. The award's legitimacy was challenged in February 2017 when Henry Sibley, Minnesota ...

and for McDonald's All-American. His specialty was shot blocking, where he set several school records that surpassed Oklahoma Sooner Longar Longar's previous JMHS records: blocks in a game (24), season (106) and career (188). As a senior in 2005–06, Cain averaged 19 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks per game.

College

In Cain's college career, the University of South Dakota was in a stage of transition for its athletics program. During his freshman ( 2006–07) and sophomore ( 2007–08) seasons, the Coyotes were a member of the

North Central Conference The North Central Conference (NCC), also known as North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, was a college athletic conference which operated in the north central United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division II. History The NCC ...

in Division II. In 2008–09, USD joined the

Great West Conference The Great West Conference (GWC) was an NCAA college athletic conference in the continental United States. Originally a football-only league, it became an all-sports entity during the 2008–09 season. The GWC stopped sponsoring football following ...

but were still classified as an independent school for certain sports, including basketball. Then, as a senior in 2009–10, the Coyotes finally became full-fledged members of the GWC in Division I. Over his four-year career, Cain was South Dakota's best player. He started in 115 of the 120 games he played in and he set the top four USD single-season blocks totals. When his career ended, Cain finished as the school's 11th leading scorer (1,390), second leading rebounder (1,088) and tops in blocked shots (361). He compiled 36 career

double-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 ter ...

s while scoring in double figures on 74 occasions. Cain capped his career by winning the first ever GWC Player of the Year award.

Professional

In August 2010, Cain signed a contract to play for

BK VEF Rīga VEF Rīga is a Latvian professional basketball team that is based in Riga, Latvia. VEF Rīga is an twelven-time Latvian Basketball League champion. History Early years The club name VEF came from the radio manufacturing company VEF which create ...

of the

Baltic Basketball League Baltic Basketball League (BBL) was the Baltic states basketball league founded in 2004. The league mainly focused on teams from the Baltic states, but teams from Sweden, Russia, Kazakhstan, Finland, and Belarus Belarus, officially the Rep ...

in Latvia. In December 2012, after not getting job at higher level Cain returned to Latvia and signed with Barons Kvartāls. He averaged

in Latvian league (15.8 points and 10.6 rebounds). Before 2013–2014 season Cain signed with

Fulgor Libertas Forlì Fulgor Libertas Forlì was an Italian professional basketball team based in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The club ceased operating in January 2015 due to financial problems. History Fulgor Forlì was founded in 1949 by Stefano Cozzi. It reache ...

in Italian second division, where he again averaged double-double (17.0 points and 11.1 rebounds) On June 24, 2019, he has signed 2 years deal with

Germani Basket Brescia The Pallacanestro Brescia, better known for sponsorship reasons as Germani Brescia, is an Italian professional basketball team, based in Brescia, Lombardy. Founded in 2009, the team plays in the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) since the 2016–17 seaso ...

of the LBA. Cain averaged 8.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. On July 31, 2020, he parted ways with

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

, and signed in the same league with

Victoria Libertas Pesaro Victoria Libertas (also known as "VL" or in Italian ''Vuelle''), full name Unione Sportiva Victoria Libertas Pallacanestro, is a professional basketball team that is based in Pesaro, Italy. The club competes in the top level Italian professiona ...

. In that

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, Cain had the highest rebounds of the competition. On Sunday July 11, 2021, Cain signed with Derthona Basket, newly promoted to the

References

External links

South Dakota Coyotes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Tyler 1988 births Living people American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Italy American expatriate basketball people in Latvia American men's basketball players Pallacanestro Brescia players Basketball players from Minnesota BK Barons players BK VEF Rīga players Derthona Basket players Élan Béarnais players Fulgor Libertas Forlì players JDA Dijon Basket players Lega Basket Serie A players Pallacanestro Varese players Power forwards Reims Champagne Basket players South Dakota Coyotes men's basketball players Sportspeople from Rochester, Minnesota Victoria Libertas Pallacanestro players