Mamukelashvili, Rhoden Open NBA Seasons
10/23/2024 2:06:00 PM | Men's Basketball
South Orange, N.J. — Seton Hall men's basketball alumni Sandro Mamukelashvili '21 and Jared Rhoden '22 started their NBA seasons last night as the Pirates duo look to continue their success at the highest level of professional basketball.
The 2020-21 BIG EAST Player of the Year, Mamukelashvili enters his fifth NBA season and his third with the San Antonio Spurs. "Mamu" re-signed with the Spurs this past offseason after appearing in 46 games and averaging 4.1 points and 3.2 rebounds in 9.8 minutes per game in 2023-24. He has played in 130 career games with San Antonio and the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Tbilisi, Georgia native was like many of the great Pirates from his era; a player who stayed for four years and improved steadily in his time in South Orange. Following his senior campaign at The Hall, Mamukelashvili was named BIG EAST Player of the Year, Haggerty Award Metropolitan Player of the Year, Associated Press All-America honorable mention, NABC and USBWA All-District, first-team All-BIG EAST and first-team All-Met Writers. He also was a finalist for the 2021 Karl Malone National Power Forward of the Year Award. In February of that season, Mamukelashvili became just the 45th Pirate in program history to reach the 1,000 career points milestone. Reaching 1,000 was a strong accomplishment for someone who only scored 87 points his freshman season, missed 10 games of his junior season due to injury and lost more games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He finished his career with an even 1,100 points, which ranked 38th all-time at Seton Hall at the time of his graduation. He also ranked 20th in program history with 651 career rebounds.
After signing a two-way contract with the Charlotte this past week, Rhoden was with the team for their first game at Houston. Rhoden has played in 31 games over the last two seasons with the Detroit Pistons where he averaged 4.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game. After spending this preseason with the Toronto Raptors, he was quickly picked up by Charlotte for the start of the 2024-25 season.
An All-BIG EAST First Team selection, Rhoden is one of only 12 Pirates to log more than 1,200 points and 600 rebounds in a career. He played on three teams that won at least 20 games, two NCAA Tournament teams and was a key contributor for the 2019-20 squad that won the BIG EAST regular season championship. Rhoden was the linchpin for a Seton Hall squad that returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2021-22 and registered its sixth 20-win season in the last seven years. He was named All-BIG EAST First Team, All-Met First Team by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association and was named to NABC and USBWA All-District Teams after finishing sixth in the BIG EAST with 15.5 points per game. Rhoden is currently tied for 33rd in program history with 1,270 career points.Â
