The court of the NCAA this month is the league’s only South Korean basketball rookie’s latest tune-up for every player’s dream, to the NBA.
With the first game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) March Madness just around the corner, the spotlight is on Gonzaga University’s Junseok Yeo, 21, who plays for the West Coast basketball court. The Gonzaga Bulldogs are the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region and will play the McNeese Cowboys in Salt Lake City on March 21 for their first-round matchup.
Yeo, who played at Yongsan High School and Korea University, is one of South Korea’s top prospects who transferred to Gonzaga University in 2022. He already surpassed 190 centimeters (6 feet and 2 inches) in height in elementary school and now stands at 207 centimeters (6 feet 8 inches).
Ahead of the March Madness first round, which begins on March 19, Sports Illustrated highlighted the only Korean athlete in the NCAA’s 68-team field. Sports Illustrated said on March 8 that Yeo, who dreams of making it to the National Basketball Association (NBA), has a good chance of doing well this year thanks to the support of Korean basketball fans. In particular, it noted that whenever Gonzaga University plays away from home, the team’s fans pack the stadium with Korean flags, drawing attention to Yeo.
“Yeo is humble and he’s extremely down to earth, and he does his best to interact with the many fans who support him,” Sports Illustrated quoted team coach Jorge Sanz, adding, “He’s a good soul. He’s a good kid, and he’s a hard worker. He’s just trying his best to make it work and make it happen.”
In particular, the media explained that before joining Gonzaga, Yeo was awarded the Most Valuable Player award at the 2019 Basketball Without Borders event in Tokyo as part of the NBA Global Academy, where he spent a year working to build up his body. At the same time, Yeo played in the U19 FIBA World Cup in Latvia in 2021, where he led South Korea to a 25.6-point average.
The vice president and head of NBA International Basketball Development, Chris Ebersole, also hinted at Yeo’s potential in the NBA, saying, “Jun was a little different. He was a little more well-rounded. He had just a real kind of dynamic game as a forward.”
If Yeo makes it to the NBA, he will be the second Korean player to do so since Seungjin Ha (Portland Trail Blazers) in 2004.
In an interview with the school’s coaching staff last year, Sanz said, “He is an extremely unselfish player. He doesn’t want to disrupt the fit and the harmony, even on the court. We want him to be aggressive.”
Yeo’s journey to Washington during the pandemic was particularly challenging, the magazine reported, with Sanz quoting him as saying, “His dream was to play in the NBA. He felt this path was to help him achieve that, so he definitely made significant sacrifices.”
Even after his arrival, Yeo surprised his coaches when he was at the same time putting a significant amount of time into academic work than anyone else.
Known for his charming personality and excellent dancing skills, Yeo has a strong fan base in the Korean-American community.
His older brother Junhyung Yeo also plays for the Jeonju KCC Aegis in South Korea.
If the Gonzaga Bulldogs advance to the second round, they will face the winner of Kansas and Sanford on March 23, with the round of 16 (March 28-29) and quarterfinals (March 29-30) in Detroit. The semifinals and finals will be held April 6-8 in Glendale, Arizona.
BY BRIAN CHOI, HOONSIK WOO [ichoi@koreadaily.com]
