On Thursday, top basketball prospects from around the world will converge at New York City to await selection by one of 29 NBA teams. Andre Iguodala from UA will be among them. ASU's Ike Diogu will not.
Published reports have stated that Ike wants to continue his college degree, and Diogu said he's committed to stay in Tempe for four years to complete his "education and basketball career at Arizona State."
If Diogu wants to stay at ASU and see his undergraduate degree in digital art through to the day he graduates, I applaud his efforts. He could even pursue a graduate art degree and probably make a great impact in his field. Ike is charismatic, easy-going and popular with people. He has the skills that lead to success in nearly every field of endeavor.
However, completion of a college degree is the only reason Ike should stay. His decision should not come from pity for the whiny ASU fans and the moribund mess that is the ASU men's basketball team.
Rather than building Ike up for future success, ASU threatens to bog Ike down with expectations and commitments no person can fulfill.
If he did go, some in the ASU community might call Diogu's move selfish. Anyone who did so is holding student athletes to a ridiculous standard of amateur virtue. Such a standard is not reflected by anyone currently related to the ASU basketball program.
At times this past basketball season, the team resembled a sinking ship in which Diogu continued to fight the crashing waves. The rest of the crew, captain included, decided they were better off drowning in the rough waters of Pac-10 basketball.
As a case in point, Ike played on average eight minutes more than any other Sun Devil this season. And despite getting fouled about as often as Shaquille O'Neal in the paint, Ike calmly sank 82 percent of his free throws, while the rest of the team shot a mediocre 68 percent.
The pressure of having to carry ASU on his shoulders at times must be burdensome. Add to that the pressures of being named to sportswriters' preseason All-America teams and maintaining the rigorous life of a student athlete. It becomes clear that Ike has a solid case for bolting the college scene for the professional ranks, if only to lessen his heavy burden.
Diogu's coach, Rob Evans, left the University of Mississippi in 1998 for a higher-paying job at ASU, keeping with the trend of college coaches who abandon their teams at a whim and a dollar's scent.
No better are most ASU students, who are as fair-weather as fans come. Most probably don't know or care to know about ASU basketball history. We did beat our Tucson rivals during the 80s. Nowadays, if Ike and the boys get into some tournament that we can gamble on, we're happy.
Ike Diogu owes nothing to ASU beyond doing his very best in the classroom to fulfill his scholarship, but even that is for his own sake. We can only hope that Ike chooses his career path not on the timetable of the ASU student body or the ASU athletic department, but on his own. It is a right all other students maintain, and one that naturally extends to student athletes.
-- Matt Estes
philosophy and religious studies senior
