Men's Basketball | 7/28/2025 3:05:00 PM
Another York University Lions men's basketball alumnus is headed to play professionally in Europe.
Former York centre Liam Rietschin (2019-25) signed last week with the Pully Lausanne Foxes of the Swiss Basketball League, the country's top professional league.
Rietschin, a 6'11 native of Toronto, turns pro after a solid four-season run at his hometown school. He is coming off a career season in 2024-25, where he posted a career-high 14.1 points per game while being a force on the interior defensively, posting a career-best 62 blocks, an average of 2.8 per game. Those numbers both led the OUA, while the 62 blocks led the nation. The 62 swats are second-most ever by a Lion in a single season behind only Stefan Haynes' 77 in 2008-09 while the 2.8 rejections per game is also second-most by a York player in a season trailing only Haynes' 2008-09 mark of 3.5. Additionally, Rietschin set the Lions single season block record with nine in what his final OUA game on Feb. 15 vs. Brock.
The big man's four seasons in the red and white (not including the cancelled 2020-21 COVID season and the 2022-23 campaign he missed) have placed him among the top defensive players in program history. The psychology graduate sits fifth all-time in blocks by a Lion with 96, while he is third all-time in blocks per game at 1.5. Offensively, he was an efficient interior scorer in his time at York, sitting seventh all-time in career field goal percentage (51.5), with his 60.8% mark in 2024-25 is ninth on the Lions single-season field goal percentage list.
Rietschin, who was drafted in the second round, 20th overall by the Montreal Alliance in this past April's CEBL Draft, signs with a Foxes club that finished third in the SBL in 2024-25 with a 15-9 record in 24 games. The team, which plays its home games in Pully, a suburb of Lausanne just an hour outside Geneva, swept its quarter-final playoff series against the Basel Starwings, before being swept in the semi-finals to the Geneva Lions.
Rietschin becomes the second former Lion in recent weeks to ink a contract in Europe, after his former teammate, Elias Panagiotopoulos, signed a deal with NE Megaridas of the Greek Elite League, the country's second-tier professional circuit.
His former team will kick off its 2025-26 schedule on home court hosting the Waterloo Warriors in their season opener for the second time in three years on Oct. 25. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 pm from the Tait McKenzie Centre.
