Coro: Blumbergs comes far quickly

When a basketball player can cover a lot of territory in a short time, he has a chance to be good.

With Roberts Blumbergs doing that in basketball and life, he has a chance to be special for Grand Canyon.

Blumbergs is far from home, living in America for the first time, playing against older players and immersing into a daily regimen of basketball. But none of that is new to him.

In less than three months on campus, the 6-foot-10 freshman slid into a Lopes starting role before his GCU Arena debut Thursday night against St. Francis because his life and basketball experience prepared him for the Division I level.

Blumbergs already moved from his small Baltic Sea port town of Ventspils, Latvia, when he joined a German basketball club at age 16. He already competed against older men daily over three seasons in Germany. He already learned about U.S. culture and NCAA hoops when he lived with an American family whose father played basketball for Oregon. He already knew English, well enough to enjoy graduate assistant Johnny Hill nicknaming him "Smooth" for the power forward's ball-handling and long-distance shooting.

"I'm super-excited to go out there and play and enjoy the atmosphere," Blumbergs (BLUHM-bergs) said of his first GCU home game. "I know I have to bring my game to help this team as much as I can with what I do and to improve. I played with grown men in Germany when I was 16, 17 years old. That helped me a lot to mentally prepare myself to play against big bodies."

Blumbergs could be an overnight sensation at GCU because he is a new name on the scene of the Lopes' first NCAA Division I tournament push. But in basketball circles he has been well-known for his Latvian national team play, which put Lopes coaches in a recruiting battle against stalwarts Creighton and Seton Hall.

"I think he's got a really good chance to be a very good player," GCU head coach Dan Majerle said. "He's got to get a little bit more competitive and try to get better. He's a high-level worker. Both him and Ali (freshman Alessandro Lever) are going to be a big part of what happens here the next four years."

Rising on the European scene

Four years ago, Blumbergs was In Latvia learning the game from an older brother with size passed down from his 6-7 father, a security firm manager, and not his 5-6 mother, a pediatrician. Blumbergs drew notice on the Latvian under-16 national team and left home at 16 to join the Artland Dragons, a B-league club in Germany.

"It was really tough," Blumbergs said. "I never had been away from my family for that long of a time. Once you get used to it, you find new friends and you get more comfortable."

That has helped his GCU transition, a college goal that already was on his mind when he went to Artland. There, he lived in the home of Flo Hartenstein, a former Oregon player who settled in Germany after a pro career there. His son, Isaiah, was a second-round NBA draft pick by the Houston Rockets this year after playing in Lithuania.

Blumbergs' days were consumed with basketball, so he switched to a Latvian online school to finish his education. His basketball was thriving. He was one of the most efficient producers at last year's Under-18 European Championship, which was held later than the usual prime recruiting period, helping GCU's pursuit.

Lopes assistant coach Chris Crevelone's recruitment of Blumbergs got an early start off a friend's recommendation. Crevelone visited Lever in Italy and Blumbergs in the Czech Republic, where Blumbergs had moved to join the Get Better Academy.

"I noticed his skill set, size and frame instantly," Crevelone said. "We didn't have anybody like that on our team. There wasn't really anybody like that in the conference. I knew Coach emphasizes a stretch four man (power forward). A guy like that is going to be good for us."

Choosing GCU

Blumbergs' GBA club came to Providence, R.I., to play in February with his growing notoriety now drawing interest from Tennessee, Oklahoma, Creighton, Seton Hall, Xavier and Georgia Tech. But with a relationship established, Blumbergs narrowed his visits to GCU and Creighton with Seton Hall as a backup.

Blumbergs' parents do not speak English, but the Lopes showed a commitment to his family by inviting his English-speaking brother on the March recruiting visit, which included a dinner with Majerle and USA Basketball managing director and former Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo.

"I told him what I thought I could do for him and that he'd have a big opportunity to play right away and be a big part of what we do," Majerle said. "He said about two words the whole visit, but I could tell we connected."

Four days later, Blumbergs committed to GCU. He told Colangelo that he knew he was coming to GCU once he sat down to dinner with him.

"I knew this was the one as soon as I came here," Blumbergs said, sitting in GCU's new Basketball Practice Facility video theater. "I knew this was going to be the best fit for me. I just felt like this organization is something special. I've been watching how the program is growing. There is something great happening here, so it would be great for me to be a part of this team."

College life begins

Despite his Latvian upbringing, Blumbergs liked Phoenix's hot summer weather. The 19-year-old seems unfazed by the shine of the fall's spotlight too. In starting his first exhibition game at Nevada, he scored the Lopes' first five points on the pairing of a runner in the lane and a 3-point shot that showed his versatility.

Blumbergs plays with high court intelligence, ingrained from the precision of European-style basketball. The consistent intensity of American basketball is foreign to him.

"Here, you have to go hard every time on the court and be ready for that," Blumbergs said. "If you go hard in practice every day, you'll adapt quick. I'm not worried about that. I can't wait for the season to start to see what's going to happen."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

Grand Canyon University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Roberts Blumbergs

Alessandro Lever

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