HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University men's basketball team continues to retool its roster for the 2023-24 season as head coach David Kiefer has secured the signature of graduate transfer Carlos Paez from Austin Peay, the team announced on Wednesday.
 
Paez, a 5-10 point guard from Naguanagua, Venezuela, was a four-year starter for the Governors. In his four seasons in Clarksville, Tenn., Paez started 95 of the 119 games he appeared in and averaged 7.2 points and 3.6 assists per game. At Southeastern, he will be reunited with former APSU teammate Alec Woodard, who he played with from 2019 to 2022.
 
His best season was the COVID-19 shortened 2019-20 season where he averaged career bests in points, 8.9 per game, assists, 4.2 per game, and rebounds, 2.6 per game. That year, he also shot a career best 43.1% from the field and 41.2% from above the three-point arc.
 
He ended his time at Austin Peay with 861 career points, 266 career rebounds, and 428 career assists. He finished with the fourth-most assists in program history and his 3.6 career assist per game average is tied for eighth-best in Governors program history while holding the record for best career free throw percentage in APSU history at 88.7% and had the top two single season marks when it comes to free throw percentage for that program, hitting 89.1% in 2020-21 and 88.2% in 2019-20. Following his senior season, he was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team and won Austin Peay's Legend Award at the school's end of year awards ceremony.
 
"Carlos is a huge addition to our program," said Kiefer, "not simply because of what he does on the court but also what he does in other aspects of his life. He is an outstanding student and a leader in the community. As far as basketball goes, his competitiveness and high basketball IQ are what has allowed him to be successful over the past four years at Austin Peay and even before that at Sunrise Christian Academy. He is a winner in life."
 
In his four-year collegiate career, he had one chance to play against Southeastern. Back on Nov. 23, 2019, Paez came off the bench to score seven points and dish out a game high-tying six assists as the Governors knocked off the Lions 81-60 in Clarksville.
 
Prior to Austin Peay, Paez prepped at Sunrise Christian Academy, passing through prior to current Lion Brody Rowbury's time at the Bel Air, Kansas school, but was coached there by current SLU assistant coach Riley Conroy. He's expected to graduate from Austin Peay with a degree in communications before coming to Hammond where he'll be immediately eligible to join the SLU basketball team.
 
HARDWOOD CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the basketball program are encouraged to join the Hardwood Club.  Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letterwinners.  All membership fees and donations to Hardwood Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern basketball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Basketball, follow @LionUpMBB and @DavidKieferSLU on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
 
TICKETS
For ticket information, please contact the Southeastern Athletics Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or visit www.LionSports.net/tickets. Southeastern is implementing mobile ticketing as the primary source for securing tickets. All tickets will be available via e-mail in a PDF format for fans to download on their phone or print at home. Tickets can also be downloaded to Apple Wallet.