July 5, 2007

MILWAUKEE - Former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball standout Joah Tucker has been added to the summer league roster of the NBA's Detroit Pistons.

Tucker, who starred at UWM from 2003-05, will join the Pistons for their play in Las Vegas from July 7-14.

Last season, Tucker played for Le Havre in France, averaging 12.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for a team that finished 16-18 in the French First Division.

Tucker will be joined on the Pistons' summer league roster by first-round picks Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo.

This is not Tucker's first chance with an NBA squad, as the Milwaukee native was on the Miami Heat roster last summer.

As a Panther, Tucker earned First-Team All-Horizon League honors twice while leading UWM to three-straight Horizon League regular season titles and three wins in the NCAA Tournament. He started 94-straight games in his UWM career, finishing eighth on the school's all-time scoring list (1,416) and sixth on the school's Division I rebounding list (513). Tucker was also the 2005 Horizon League Tournament Most Valuable Player before averaging 25.3 points per game in three NCAA contests, leading UWM into the Sweet 16. He followed that up in the 2006 post-season by earning League All-Tournament honors before scoring 24 points in an NCAA Tournament First Round win over Oklahoma.

Tucker is one of a number of Panthers that enjoyed strong campaigns overseas this past season. Dylan Page (Drac Inca) and Adrian Tigert (Huesca) both averaged better than 17 points per game for their teams in Spain, while Chris Hill (CS Otopeni Bucuresti) appeared in the Romanian All-Star Game and averaged nearly 15 points per game.

Boo Davis (Maccabi Givat Shmuel) was a standout in Israel, averaging nearly 14 points per game, while Jose Winston (TSV Dachau) spent a second strong season in Germany, standing among the team leaders in nearly every statistical category.

A number of other players also spent this past season overseas. Ed McCants (CSKA) played 20 games in Bulgaria, averaging 13 points per game. Jason McCoy (KK Mornar Bar) played this past season in Montenegro, while Nate Mielke (Club Atletico Olimpia) has joined a team in Uruguay after playing last season in Chile. Also, Derek Durham, who played at UWM from 1994-96, spent this past season with Sorgues BC in France.

Closer to home, Clay Tucker (Arkansas Rim Rockers) ranked in the top 10 in scoring much of the season in the NBA Development League before signing at the end of the year to play at Le Mans in the French First Division. Meanwhile, Shaun Fountain (Indiana AlleyCats) finished sixth in the Continental Basketball Association in scoring while leading the league in steals and finishing second in assists. He has since joined the Dodge City Legend in the United States Basketball League.