Joe Ragland

Joseph Alexander Ragland (born November 11, 1989) is an American-Liberian professional basketball player for Maccabi Ra'anana of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for North Platte Community College and Wichita State.

Ragland was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He played basketball for West Springfield High School, where he earned the Lahovich Award as a senior.

After graduating from high school, Ragland committed to North Platte Community College, of the NJCAA. Ragland was named a First Team NJCAA All-American selection in 2010, as he led his team to an NJCAA tournament appearance, averaging 18.4 points per game, on 56% shooting from the field. Ragland finished his career at North Platte, as the college's all-time leading scorer, with 1,286 total points scored, with career averages of 19.5 points and 3.1 assists per game.

Ragland's performances at North Platte caught the eye of Gregg Marshall, who offered him a scholarship at Wichita State. As a junior with the Shockers, Ragland started 19 games, and led the team in assists. He helped the Shockers to win the 2011 NIT championship. Ragland had a career-high scoring performance against UNLV, with 31 points, to go along with another career high of 8 three-pointers made. In his senior college season, Ragland averaged 13.4 points per game, and ranked first nationally in true shooting percentage, at 70.4%. For his performances in the 2011–12 season, he was voted to the First Team of the Missouri Valley Conference. In total, over his two seasons with the Shockers, Ragland appeared in 69 games, and had averages of 10 points, 3 assists, and 2.3 rebounds per game.

Following two solid years as the starting point guard for Wichita State, Ragland entered the 2012 NBA draft. However, he went undrafted. He next played in the 2012 NBA Summer League, with the Golden State Warriors' summer league squad; although he played in all 5 games for the undefeated Warriors summer league team, he was not able to secure an NBA contract with the Warriors.

In August 2012, Ragland moved to Europe, to start his professional career, after he signed his first pro contract with UCAM Murcia, of the Spanish Liga ACB. He signed a two-year contract with the Spanish club. After accounting himself well for Murcia, who were not in playoff contention, nor in relegation danger, he was loaned near the end of the season, in April 2013.

In 2013, Ragland was loaned by UCAM Murcia, to the Italian A League side Cantù, to play in the Serie A playoffs. He proved to be an instant hit in Italy, as he played in all of his team's games, and contributed greatly to their run to the league's semi-finals.

Cantù then moved to secure him for the next season, and signed him to a one-year deal in July. It proved to be a wise move for the club, as Ragland became an indisputable starter, and contributed greatly to the team, in both the Italian league, where he made the Lega All-Star Game, and in the European-wide second-tier level EuroCup, where he was the MVP of Round 4 of the competition.