{"id":319587,"date":"2026-06-25T17:09:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319587\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T17:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T17:09:37","slug":"miamis-ernest-udeh-jr-secures-two-way-deal-with-cavaliers-after-going-undrafted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/319587\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami&#8217;s Ernest Udeh Jr. secures two-way deal with Cavaliers after going undrafted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">Former Miami center, Ernest Udeh Jr., has agreed to a <a href=\"https:\/\/caneswarning.com\/tre-donaldson-gets-an-nba-lifeline-with-the-heat-after-one-huge-year-at-miami\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">two-way contract<\/a> with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The deal gives Udeh an NBA foothold after a one-year stint with the Hurricanes turned him into one of the ACC&#8217;s most reliable defensive big men.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">Udeh arrived at Miami after stops at Kansas and TCU and became a foundation piece for Jai Lucas. The 6-foot-11 center averaged 6.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.0 steals in 28 minutes per game. He also shot 72.7% from the field and earned All-ACC Defensive Team honors.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">From The U to The League \ud83d\udd25<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ernestudehjr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@ernestudehjr<\/a> is heading to THE LAND \ud83d\ude4c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/ProCanes?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#ProCanes<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IkOZefLcKw\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/IkOZefLcKw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Canes Men\u2019s Basketball (@CanesHoops) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CanesHoops\/status\/2070004655069761768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 25, 2026<\/a>Ernest Udeh Jr. lands with Cleveland Cavaliers<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Udeh rebounded at a high level, protected the rim and finished efficiently without needing the ball on offense. Udeh led the nation in defensive rebounding rate during his final college season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6o\">One of his best games came against then-No. 11 UNC. Udeh finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds in the Hurricanes&#8217; February win over North Carolina, helping Miami control the paint in a 75-66 victory.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6r\">Udeh averaged 5.5 points and 6.4 rebounds across two seasons at TCU before transferring to Coral Gables. Before transferring to TCU, Udeh spent his freshman season at Kansas in 2022-23. Udeh averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.4 minutes per game while shooting 75.6% from the field.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">A two-way deal gives Udeh a chance to split time between Cleveland and the Cavaliers&#8217; NBA G League affiliate, the Cleveland Charge.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">For Udeh, the Cleveland Charge will be a chance to get consistent professional minutes while continuing to work on the parts of his game that will decide whether he can stick at the NBA level.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">Udeh joins a Cavaliers organization that made one draft selection in 2026. Cleveland initially selected UConn forward Alex Karaban at No. 29 overall, then traded his rights to Sacramento for the No. 34 pick and a future second-rounder. The Cavaliers used No. 34 on Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow caneswarning.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=caneswarning.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Miami center, Ernest Udeh Jr., has agreed to a two-way contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The deal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-319587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}