Amaan Sandhu becomes first Indian male NBA Academy alum to earn Division 1 scholarship

Benyam Kidane

Amaan Sandhu becomes first Indian male NBA Academy alum to earn Division 1 scholarship image

NBA Academy alumni Amaan Sandhu is continuing his basketball journey, committing to play college basketball at Monmouth University.

Sandhu becomes the third player from the NBA Academy in India to receive a Division 1 scholarship in the USA and the first male, joining Sanjana Ramesh at Northern Arizona and Harsimran Kaur at San Diego on the women's side.

"We're so excited to add Amaan to our program," Monmouth coach King Rice said.

"His journey to get to where he is now is incredible and we're glad he chose to come with us. To be one of the first players born in India to ever earn a Division I men's basketball scholarship is major for Amaan and his family and we can't wait to get to work with him." 

The Mohali, Punjab, India native played high school basketball at First Love Christian Academy in Pittsburgh after finishing at the NBA Academy in 2020. 

Sandhu joined the NBA Academy India in 2017 as part of the inaugural class of student-athletes and as competed at multiple high-profile basketball development camps, including Basketball Without Borders Asia 2018 & 2019, NBA Global Camp 2018 in Italy, 2018 and 2019 NBA Academy Games, as well as the Basketball Without Borders Global Camp during NBA All-Star 2020 in Chicago.

MORE: NBA.com's all-access exclusive with Sandhu from May 2020
 
The 7-foot- center made his debut for the Indian Men's Senior National Team in 2019 at the South Asian Games, winning a gold medal. He was also a member of the 2020 Indian National Team at the FIBA Asia qualifiers.

Benyam Kidane

Benyam Kidane Photo

Benyam Kidane is a senior NBA editor and has been covering the league for The Sporting News since 2016. In his spare time you can find him watching Allen Iverson highlights on repeat.