Former Eastern Kentucky University men’s basketball player Isaiah Cozart has signed to play professionally for RASTA Vechta in the German Basketball League, the organization announced recently.
RASTA Vechta competes in the easyCredit Basketball Bundesliga, which consists of 18 teams in Germany’s highest basketball league and organizes the German Championship and the BBL Cup. The BBL season begins in September.
Cozart was a finalist for the 2024 Lou Henson National Player of the Year Award, given annually to the top player in mid-major college basketball, and a finalist for the 2024 Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year Award, awarded to the top defensive player in NCAA Division I college basketball. He also participated in the Reese’s All-Star Game and the Portsmouth Invitational.
The Richmond, Kentucky native earned numerous accolades, including being the first player in conference history to be named both the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year and ASUN Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. He was the unanimous choice for top defensive player. Cozart was selected First Team All-ASUN by league head coaches and All-District III First Team by the NABC. NABC’s District III includes all teams in the ASUN Conference and the Big South Conference.
Cozart averaged 15.6 points
, 10.0 rebounds, and 3.87 blocks per game while shooting 65 percent from the field this past season. The 6-foot-7 center led the ASUN in rebounding, offensive rebounding (4.10), defensive rebounding (5.93), double-doubles (14), and blocks (116). He was second in field goal percentage and ninth in scoring. Cozart led the NCAA in blocks and blocks per game while ranking fifth in offensive rebounds, sixth in field goal percentage, 17th in rebounding, and 26th in double-doubles.
On Nov. 27 against Troy, Cozart recorded EKU’s first-ever triple-double, finishing with 10 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 blocks.
Cozart set new program records for blocks in a game (11), blocks in a season, blocks per game in a season, career blocks (210), and career blocks per game (3.13). It is also just the 25th time in program history that a player has averaged a double-double during a season, and only the sixth time in EKU history a player eclipsed 400 points and 300 rebounds in the same season.
EKU won the 2023-24 Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship, the program’s first regular season conference title in 45 years. Head coach A.W. Hamilton was chosen as the ASUN Coach of the Year and the NABC District III Coach of the Year. He is the first coach in program history to be named conference coach of the year twice.
