DAYTON, Ohio – University of Dayton men’s basketball coach Anthony Grant has announced that Jordy Tshimanga, a 6-foot-11, 268-pound center from Montreal, will transfer to UD from the University of Nebraska. Tshimanga will redshirt the 2018-19 season due to NCAA transfer restrictions and then have two years of eligibility for the Flyers.
“We’re excited to add Jordy to our program,” Grant said. “His combination of size, experience and skill is another piece to the puzzle in building our program for the future. His abilities as a post player, a rim protector and a rebounder at both ends of the floor will fit into our style of play very well. He will greatly benefit from a year of learning our system while continuing to improve his body and skill set during his redshirt season. Having someone of his size and abilities to go against in practice every day will be an asset to our team this season. He is a good student, and a great fit to our team culture.”
Tshimanga played in 62 games with 27 starts in his two season at Nebraska. In 2017-18, he had 18 starts in his 31 games played and averaged 4.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 13.6 minutes per game even though he played through a minor knee injury. He had season highs of 11 points against Iowa and 11 rebounds versus Eastern Illinois. As a freshman, he averaged 5.0 points and 4.0 rebounds. Some of his best efforts came against the best teams on the schedule – 15 points, nine rebounds vs. Michigan State; 10 rebounds vs. No. 7 Wisconsin; and 10 points, eight rebounds at No. 3 Kansas.
He was named the 2017 recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award. He also was part of Nebraska’s Tom Osborne Citizenship Team and on the Nebraska Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll in his first semester and last semester as a Cornhusker.
Tshimanga played three seasons at The MacDuffie School in Granby, Mass., playing for Coach Jacque Rivera. He scored 1,123 points and grabbed 571 rebounds in his time at MacDuffie, while losing over 60 pounds during his three seasons after picking up the sport at age 15 (he previously played football). A two-time NEPSAC Class AA honoree, he averaged 18.3 points, 14.0 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game during his senior season.
The Montreal native was a four-star selection by Scout.com and was rated as the No. 150 prospect in the senior class by Rivals.com. ESPN.com rated him as the third-best prospect in the state of Massachusetts in 2016. He represented Canada in the 2014 NIKE Global Challenge and played in the Under Armour All-America camp in 2015.
He originally committed to Nebraska after receiving scholarship offers from 14 schools, including UNLV, Minnesota, LSU, Oregon, Purdue and Arizona.
While Tshimanga was born in Montreal, his family is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He speaks three languages English, French, and Lingala.
He is one of several members of his family who play basketball. His older brother, Link Kabadyundi, just completed a college career that began at TCU and ended at Texas Arlington. Yasmine Bidikuindila is a junior on the women’s basketball team at LSU. Florence Tshimanga is a sophomore on the women’s team at Grand Canyon. They have two younger brothers playing high school ball in Arizona — Emmanuel Tshimanga who is a senior at Bella Vista College Preparatory School in Scottsdale, and Nathan Tshimanga who is a junior at Phoenix Country Day School.
