By Stefanos Tatsios/ info@eurohoops.net
The Canadian guard will be playing in the colors of Barcelona for the next two years, “cashing in” his decisive performances in Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team, which he led to big successes.
Eurohoops presents Kevin Pangos’s course on the courts so far, and looks at how his career took off and how his stocks in Zalgiris got him to Barcelona.
Four years in college
Kevin Pangos went to college at the age of 18, and, in fact, one of the most important ones in American basketball, Gonzaga. His first season (2011-12) was good but he still hadn’t exploded as a player, averaging 11.5 points, 3 assists and 1.5 rebounds.
The Canadian guard’s second (2013) and third years (2014) at Gonzaga were exceptional based on numbers but also performances. In the 2012-13 season, Pangos was truly unstoppable for his opponents, with 17.5 points, 5 assists and 2.5 steals while at the same time shooting 38.1% from the three-point line, skyrocketing his stats.
In his junior year in college he was even better, proving that he was ready for big things from a young age as, aside from his numbers that were even better (19 points, 45% in three-pointers), he proved that he’s just as good at distributing the ball but also executing.
It was a given that 2014 was going to be his last season in Gonzaga and college basketball, since he was ready to play against professionals and not only be competitive against them but prove that he can become one of the best.
Pangos bid farewell to his college with 12 points, 2.8 assists and as many rebounds, and now a big career in Europe was opening up ahead of him.
Introduced in Europe via Spain
Pangos’s performances in the colors of Gran Canaria were excellent, keeping in mind we’re talking about a young player who was playing in Europe for the first time. In the Spanish league, he proved he was one of the best playmakers of that season, averaging 11.5 points, 4.8 assists, 2.2 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 42% in three-point shooting in 33 games.
In his team’s European commitments, he was once again, just like in the ACB, one of their best players, as he had 11.9 points, 4.6 assists, 1.9 rebounds and 51.2% in three-point shooting in 19 games, proving he’s a EuroLeague-level player and in fact a leader.
His stay in Spain only lasted one season as, in the summer of 2016, Sarunas Jasikevicius’s Zalgiris Kaunas came knocking on his door and got his signature, bringing him at the highest level of European basketball and appointing him the leader of their backcourt.
The two-year blastoff in Kaunas!
In the summer of 2016, Kevin Pangos said goodbye to Spain and headed for the best team in Lithuania, Zalgiris Kaunas.
His first season was pretty good, despite the fact that the Canadian playmaker was playing in the EuroLeague for the first time in his career and going up against legends of European basketball. In 30 games with Zalgiris in the 2016-17 season, he averaged 8.7 points, 3.2 assists, 1.8 rebounds, 0.9 steals and the impressive for this level 45.7% in three-point shooting.
Of course, all these stats as well as his performance were a world away from his magical presence last season. As the clear leader of Saras’s model team, Pangos managed to lead them to the Lithuanian championship but also a dream run in the EuroLeague.
The excellent guard took the necessary breathers in domestic competitions, but in EuroLeague games he was the orchestrator of the well-tuned machine that Zalgiris presented almost throughout the entire season.
He was enjoyable in the regular season, giving Zalgiris Kaunas – together with Brandon Davies – the qualification for the playoffs after many years, as well as the chance to compete for a qualification to the Final Four, despite their inexperience. Even though they were the outsider and didn’t have the home court advantage, with Pangos as their leader, Zalgiris knocked out Olympiacos in 3-1 wins and headed to the big appointment in Belgrade.
Now, the whole of Europe was talking about Saras’s amazing team and the excellent, smart playmaker he possessed. It was a given that Pangos would get a lot of offers as a free agent and, despite his team’s 3rd place in the Final Four, he had achieved his goal. He’s now considered, and not without reason, one of the best guards in Europe.
In 36 games with the Lithuanian team in the EuroLeague last season, Kevin Pangos averaged 12.7 points, 5.9 assists, 2.7 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 47.5% in three-point shooting and, in this way, closed a big chapter of his career.
From now on, we will see him playing in one of the best “scenes” in European basketball, in Barcelona, where he will now have to combine quality with substance and to help Barcelona return to big successes at home and abroad.