Keith Closs

American basketball player

Keith Mitchell Closs Jr. (born April 3, 1976) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Santiago Basket Titanes of the Laliga de Campeones (LDC). He played at the center position.

At 7 feet (2 m) and , Closs played collegiately at Central Connecticut State University, leading the nation in blocks his only two years in college, and still holding the NCAA Division I career record for blocks with 5.87 blocked shots per game.

After starting playing professionally in the Atlantic Basketball Association with the Norwich Neptunes, Closs moved to the Clippers in 1997. Having logged career highs in points, rebounds, assists and steals during 1999–2000, his NBA career abruptly ended, with a club record for most blocked shots per 48 minutes (4.7). Closs played three seasons as a backup center for the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers from 1997 to 2000, averaging 3.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game during his spell.

Closs played for the Pennsylvania Valley Dawgs of the USBL in the 2001 and 2003 seasons. On December 11, 2004, Closs signed with the Rockford Lightning of the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). He averaged a league high 4.4 blocks per game as well as 7.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game with the Lightning. On February 1, 2005, Closs was released by the Lightning. He also played in the CBA with the Gary Steelheads during the 2004–05 season. He then joined the Buffalo Silverbacks of the American Basketball Association. In December 2008, Closs signed with the Chinese league's Yunnan Bulls, and averaged 16.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 5.9 blocked shots per game. Closs played for the Santa Barbara Breakers of the West Coast Professional Basketball League in 2012.