Senior hopeful for future in basketball

By Margo Consul

Senior Okechukwu Mbanugo has one more year of eligibility to play NCAA basketball after red-shirting his freshman year, and is deciding if he is going to use his remaining year of eligibility to play elsewhere.

"Right now I'm just trying to graduate by the end of the summer," Mbanugo said.

When asked about playing basketball for one more season, he said, "I'm going to pursue it and see what happens."

After three sophomores announced their plans to transfer after this year because of a lack of playing time next season, Mbanugo, who played 8.8 minutes this season, said that Head Coach Kerry Keating would "probably not" let him play next year.

At the time of The Santa Clara's interview with Mbanugo, he had not yet met with Keating to discuss the situation. Keating was unavailable for comment about Mbanugo's situation.

"I thought about staying, or asking him (Keating) to stay, to fight it (Keating's decision) whatever I need to do. But if he doesn't want me and I fight and I win what's the point of that?" Mbanugo said.

The forward wants to look into one more year of college play so that he can eventually accomplish his goal of playing professional basketball.

"I'd like to play basketball professionally wherever they will take me," Mbanugo said. "Considering the way things went here (last season) and people did not get as much time as they would like, I would not get as much time as I would like to for me to play, but I'm going to pursue it (basketball) and see what happens."

His teammate, senior guard Brody Angley, had nothing but good things to say about Mbanugo.

"From when we first came in here, I would say he had the biggest improvement skill- and development-wise," Angely said.

Mbanugo averaged 1.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in 62 games with one start.

"I knew when I got here I was probably going to have to red shirt because I needed to bulk up a little. Everybody thought I was skinny," Mbanugo said.

Junior guard Calvin Johnson feels that Mbanugo is an asset to the team.

"He is a hard worker, he drives everybody to be a better player. He pushes them," Johnson said.

Mbanugo and his teammates also noticed the difference between the coaching styles of former Coach Davey and Head Coach Keating.

"They are two different coaches, Coach Davey and Coach Keating. They both have the same job: to win games. But the whole program is just different," Johnson said.

"The biggest difference is that coach Davey is all about getting the job done, he doesn't care how you do it so long as it gets done," Mbanugo said.

"Coach Keating pays more attention to detail," Mbanugo said.

Mbanugo added that after a disappointing season with a record of 15-16, Keating has made it clear that he wants to bring in new players.

Mbanugo knows how it will affect his opportunity to play next year.

Keating recently announced the signing of Allen County Community College standout Perry Petty on April 16.

Other new Keating recruits for the 2008-2009 season include James Rahon, Marc Trasolini, Troy Alexander and Kevin Foster.

"I think he's trying to get his guys in here as fast as he can, and he's doing what he feels he needs to and maybe since I'm graduating he sees it as an easy out to get me out of here for his people," Mbanugo said.

Mbanugo is trying figure out what is right for him and his future in basketball.

"I'm going make sure I graduate, take my classes, but basketball-wise I don't know if I'm going to transfer to another school," Mbanugo said.

"If I do graduate, I could transfer to another Division I school and take grad classes. Or I could go to a Division II school and play there."

Mbanugo is uncertain about his future plans.

Mbanugo added, "I don't know whether or not I will play college basketball. I will probably try to see what I can do to play professional basketball."

Contact Margo Consul at (408) 551-1918 or mconsul@scu.edu.