Know Your Team: Travis Releford

Sudbury Five

6'6

Guard

From Kansas City, Missouri

Everything that the Sudbury Five needed in their inaugural NBL Canada season - a consistent high scorer, a big team player and with experience at some of the highest levels - they have found in Travis Releford.

At a young age, Releford earned two Eastern Kansas Player of the Year titles with Bishop Meige High School and competed for the USA in the 2008 FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship. He avaraged 7.2 points and 2.2 rebounds in the tournament, and was second in steals for his team that won the silver medal after defeat to hosts Argentina in the final.

Releford joined the Kansas Jayhawks in 2018. He became a starter in junior year and as senior averaged 11.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists on 57% field shooting, as well as making the All-Big 12 second team and defensive first team. In his time with Kansas, Releford competed in four NCAA Division 1 tournaments, reaching the third round twice, the last eight in 2011 and finishing second overall in 2012, losing to Kentucky in the final.

In 2013, Releford went on to play for the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Las Vegas Summer League, then moved on to Belgium to play for Okapi Aalstar, both in the PBL and the EuroChallenge competition. He was next seen in the NBL Canada, where he averaged 21.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 14 appearances for the Mississaugua Power.

At the start of the 2015-16 season, he was chosen 46th overall in the NBA D-League Draft by the Idaho Stampede, going on to play in sixteen games and average 4.6 points. After a brief spell with the Helsinki Seagulls in Finland, he returned to Canada to round off the season with with the Niagara River Lions.

He spent the following season in Poland with both Szczecin and Tarnobrzeg, averaging 15.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists across the whole the season. He then played his second stint in Belgium for Limburg United, for whom he averaged 12.6 points in 29 games.

At the start of the 2018-19 season he appeared for Cypriot team Larnaca in two Basketball Champions League qualifiers, then moved to Mitteldeutscher in Germany, before becoming part of the first squad of the Sudbury Five. Starting in all but one of his first twenty three games, at which point having averaged 15.9 points and 4.4 rebounds, he has proved to be a big part of the team's success in the season.

Picture: Gino Donato, Sudbury Star