Arizona State catches a break, gets Rihard Kuksiks back

Herb Sendek caught a huge break on Thursday as Rihards Kuksiks decided to return to Tempe for his senior season.

Kuksiks was the Sun Devils leading scorer last season, but there were concerns that the 6'6" Latvian sharpshooter would opt to play professionally in Europe instead of returning to school. He spent much of August in Europe competing for Latvia in the 2011 European Championships, which increased the speculation that he wasn't coming back.

Rihard Kuksiks has decided to return to Arizona State.
(photo credit: AZStarnet)

If Kuksiks had departed, it wouldn't have been a shock. Leaving college to, essentially, play in basketball's minor leagues abroad is slowly becoming a fad. Last summer, Nick Calathes, Terrence Oglesby, and David Huertas all left school for an overseas contract. This year, Manhattan's Rico Pickett and UC-Riverside's Kyle Austin have both headed abroad, while reports have Michael Dunigan going to Israel. Greedy Peterson is headed to Greece, but he was kicked out of school.

But Kuksiks is coming back, which means that Arizona State will have their best shooter. Kuksiks will help to keep the floor spread for slashers like Ty Abbott and Trent Lockett.

Arizona State has a really good group of player on their perimeter. There is scoring, there are shooters, there are athletes. When this club gets hot, they are going to be tough to beat.

When I wrote my Pac-10 preview a week ago, I did it under the impression that Kuksiks was gone. I picked Arizona State sixth. Now, that looks like it is too low.

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MORE TERRENCE OGLESBY SPECULATION: When news first leaked that Terrence Oglesby would be leaving Clemson for a career overseas, I speculated that a possible reason for that decision was that he was told by Oliver Purnell that his role on the Clemson team was not guaranteed next season.

Why?

Because Purnell was quoted as saying that only Trevor Booker's spot was safe.

Yesterday, Jeff Goodman quoted Purnell saying:

We lost an outstanding threat as a shooter. But we should be better defensively.

Not exactly high praise from a coach who centers his teams around a pressing defense.

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Terrence Oglesby signs agent, headed to Europe

According to numerous reports, Terrence Oglesby's career as a Clemson Tiger is over as he will be signing with an agent to play professional basketball overseas.

He is the third big-time player to leave school early to play pro ball outside of the US - Nick Calathes is headed to Greece, while Ole Miss leading scorer David Huertas will be playing in Puerto Rico. Jeremy Wise of Southern Miss hired an agent, ending his collegiate eligibility, but it is not known where he intends to continue his basketball career.

Terrence Oglesby's career in purple and orange is over.
(photo credit: daylife.com)

According to Gary Parrish, Oglesby is leaving Sunday where he will be making "NBA money".

Jeff Goodman says Oglesby stands to earn around "$500,000" playing in either Italy or Spain.

This is not a terrible decision by Oglesby. $500,000 is a ton of money, and living in Italy or Spain is not would be pretty amazing. The key in this whole deal is that Oglesby was born in Norway - where his father played professional basketball - and holds dual citizenship there. Since teams overseas are only allowed two Americans on their roster, that Norweigan passport immediately increases his value to European teams, as he does not count against the "cap".

Oglesby never really seemed to fit in with Clemson's style, either. For one thing, he is a gunner. Yes, he averaged 13.2 ppg while hitting almost 39% of his three's (and making just under three per). But with talents like KC Rivers and Trevor Booker on the floor, Oglesby seemed to shoot too many threes too quickly, taking Clemson out of a rhythm offensively.

Case in point:



Yes, Oglesby does hit the shot, but he took it with a good four plus seconds left on the clock on a play clearly drawn up to get Trevor Booker a touch in the post.

More importantly, under Oliver Purnell, the Tigers have been a team known for their tremendous full court press, throwing athlete after athlete at you until they wore your guards out. At a lithe 6'2", Oglesby does not really possess the skill set that thrives in this system.

In their article regarding Oglesby, Upstatetoday.com ran this quote from Purnell:

With us not finishing the way we would’ve liked to, certainly, the mix is not necessarily the mix that we’re going to go with next year. As far as I’m concerned, the competition for playing time and starting spots and that stuff is wide open. I see probably (Trevor Booker) being the only guy that’s a lock.

Could this have played a factor in his decision? Did Purnell tell Oglesby that his starting spot wasn't safe?

Quite possibly (I doubt any coach would like this or this).

Regardless of the cause, Clemson is now going to have to deal with losing two of their top three scorers as well as a third starter, which is never easy. All is not lost, however. The Tigers do get Trevor Booker and Demontez Stitt (who is one of the more underrated point guards in the ACC), while bringing two excellent front court recruits - Rivals #25 Milton Jennings and Devin Booker, Trevor's little brother.

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