Zach Auguste

Zachary Elias Auguste (Greek: Ζαχαρίας Ηλίας "Ζακ" Όγκαστ; born July 8, 1993) is a Greek-American professional basketball player for the Shiga Lakes of the B.League. He is a center. He played college basketball for the Fighting Irish.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Auguste started playing high school basketball for Marlborough. In 2011, he moved to the university preparatory New Hampton School in New Hampshire, where he was nominated for the 2012 McDonald's All-American Game. After graduating from New Hampton, Auguste enrolled at Notre Dame, and after spending his freshman and sophomore seasons mainly as a reserve player, he rose to prominence during his junior season in 2014–15, when Notre Dame won the ACC tournament title, and went to the NCAA Elite Eight. He has one kid with girlfriend, Paris Vaughn.

High school career Auguste played at Marlborough High School for three seasons, growing 3 inches in each of these seasons. As a junior in 2009–10, Auguste averaged 22 points and received All-Star accolades from the Mid-Wachusett (Central Massachusetts) league and local newspapers the Telegram & Gazette and The MetroWest Daily News. He scored a total 631 points throughout his career at Marlborough. He cited his desire to get academically and physically ready for college as the main factors behind that decision. He finished with an average of 15 points and 8 rebounds for his senior season. he didn't make the final selection.

Soon after joining New Hampton, he was noticed by Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) conference Notre Dame's assistant coach Anthony Solomon, Despite this, Solomon's steadfast attempts to recruit the player, widely ranked a 4-star recruit, convinced Auguste to visit the campus; he committed to Notre Dame on the spot in September 2011. After two ankle sprains during pre-season practice, Auguste had difficulty breaking into the already established team. Finding himself behind Jack Cooley and Garrick Sherman in the rotation, he averaged 10.7 minutes per game in 25 games. Notable were games against Kennesaw State (12 points and 7 rebounds in 12 minutes) Though he did start 13 games out of 30, followed by no-shows. He finished his sophomore season with 6.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in nearly 17 minutes per game on average. with Auguste quickly recouping from his bad performances. In January 2015, Auguste was sidelined by Notre Dame due to academic issues, with the length of the suspension undisclosed. It would ultimately only last three days, with the unknown reason later described as minor by the player. Auguste was seen as a major contributor to the Irish's 2015 ACC tournament title contributing 16 points and 13 rebounds in the final against North Carolina (for an average of more than 11 points and 9 rebounds in the whole tournament).

In the Round of 64 of the following 2015 NCAA tournament, Auguste scored 25 points against Northeastern, including two under-pressure free-throws in the final minute of a 69–65 close-fought win. In the next round tie against Butler, he committed a double dribble that conceded possession with two seconds left on the clock in a tied 55–55 game. Butler did not score, and in overtime Auguste blocked a shot before grabbing a rebound – a team-leading 13th – as Notre Dame won to reach the Sweet 16. A comfortable win over Wichita State followed (15 points, 6 rebounds and 1 block for Auguste in 26 minutes) and Notre Dame qualified to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1979. Auguste, described as "Notre Dame's only true post player", was predicted to play an important role in the game against undefeated Kentucky, who – in Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein – had some of the biggest forwards of the tournament. He had 20 points and nine rebounds in the game, while mostly defended by Towns. In defense against the same player, he could not stop him from scoring 25 points in a to-the-wire 66–68 loss to the favorites. Auguste finished the tournament with 16.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, with 12.9 points and 6.5 rebounds in around 24 minutes for the whole 2014–15 season. He was also voted to the Preseason All-ACC second team. Seven games into the 2015–16 season, Auguste tallied his fifth double-double of the season, tying the total of his first three seasons. He was named as one of ten finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, also earning third team all-ACC honors for the season. In the quarter-final of the 2016 ACC tournament Auguste led his team to an 84–79 win versus Duke, posting a double-double with 19 points and 22 rebounds, setting the Notre Dame's record for most rebounds in a game and tying Tim Duncan's second best performance in the ACC Tournament.

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Professional career 2016–2017 season After not being drafted in the 2016 NBA draft, Auguste joined the Los Angeles Lakers' summer league squad for the 2016 Las Vegas Summer League. He appeared in 4 games, and averaged 5.3 points and 4 rebounds per game. On August 29, 2016, he signed a contract with the Lakers,

On October 27, he signed with Muratbey Uşak Sportif of the Turkish Super League, for the 2016–17 season. He made his professional debut on November 5, 2016, going scoreless against İstanbul BŞB, in a Turkish BSL game. In January 2017, Auguste scored 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, to help his team get past Polish team Rosa Radom, which earned him the Game Day 11 MVP award of the Champions League 2016–17 season.

He averaged 11.7 points, 7.5 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game, in 23 games played in the Turkish Super League. He also averaged 13.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game, in 11 games played in the European-wide 3rd-tier level Champions League. After his club was parachuted down into the European-wide 4th-tier level FIBA Europe Cup, he averaged 17.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, in 4 games played in the FIBA Europe Cup 2016–17 season.

2017–2018 season Auguste then played with the Miami Heat's summer league squad for the 2017 Las Vegas Summer League. He averaged 10 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.4 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in the Las Vegas Summer League, and 7.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in the Orlando Summer League. On June 30, 2017, Auguste signed a one-year deal with Greek club Panathinaikos, at a salary of €500,000 euros net income.

2018–2019 season Auguste signed with Galatasaray of the Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL) and the EuroCup on August 7, 2018.

2019–2020 season On July 23, 2019, Auguste renewed his contract with Galatasaray for another season.

2020–2021 season On July 20, 2020, Auguste officially returned to the Greek Basket League and Panathinaikos for a second stint with the EuroLeague club, signing a two-year (1+1) contract.

2021–2022 season He played for the Boston Celtics in the 2021 NBA summer league, scoring 2 points on 1–2 shooting and taking 5 rebounds in 16-minutes at his debut, a 85–83 win against the Atlanta Hawks. On August 23, 2021, Auguste signed with Cedevita Olimpija of the ABA League First Division and the EuroCup.

2022–2023 season On July 9, 2022, he has signed with Frutti Extra Bursaspor of the Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL).

2023–2024 season On June 20, 2023, he signed with SeaHorses Mikawa of the B.League.

National team career Auguste was selected to the senior Greek national basketball team's 16 man preliminary squad for the EuroBasket 2017.

Personal life Auguste was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Jean Bazile Auguste and Lea Tzimoulis. from Haiti, whose uncle is Christophe Dardompre, a former Colonel of the Haitian Army. His mother is of Greek heritage. His maternal great-grandfather, Louis, immigrated to the U.S. from Agia Sotira, Greece in 1949.

Auguste has dual citizenship with the United States and Greece. He has a son born in August 2020.