Vecenie: Odd for Wash. St. to block transfer

When will universities learn that blocking the options of players transferring from their school never ends well?

Apparently, not soon enough.

In this edition of a school holding a player hostage from the university he would like to visit, Washington State has placed restrictions on where 6-foot-11 junior center Valentine Izundu can transfer. Before getting into those issues though, let’s introduce you to Izundu, a player you might not be familiar with if you live outside of Pullman, Washington.

Izundu is a defensive-minded center who blocked 2.2 shots per game last season, but is limited offensively as he only scored 3.8 points per game. He’s also a good student, and he’ll be graduating in the spring with a 3.0-plus grade-point-average, meaning he will be eligible to play immediately starting next season. He was on the Pac-12’s All-Academic team this season due to his performance both on and off the floor.

Basically, he’s a solid, athletic, intelligent player who will absolutely have a market for his services, but he’s also not a guy that’s going to be changing the entire fortunes of either Washington State or the team he transfers to next season. This isn’t a five-star prospect that drastically alters the ceiling for the Cougars or any other team. So already, the question exists as to why the school would make it a point to stop him above all other players from going to a school of his choosing. But the nature of the restriction is so entirely over-the-top that it would be comical if it wasn’t also infuriating.

When Izundu received his release, the school disallowed him from contacting 26 schools. That list includes the entire Pac-12 and the non-conference schedule that the Cougars play next season. Oh, and it also includes San Diego State.

Why San Diego State? You’re going to have to sit back and read this one to believe it.

In March, Izundu and teammate Que Johnson — also transferring from the university, which we’ll get to momentarily — decided to take their spring break in San Diego to relax and get away from school after Washington State’s 9-22 season ended. While on that trip, Izundu got tickets to San Diego State’s opening round NIT game against IPFW through a friend that lives in the city.

Izundu, Johnson, and the friend attended the game. He says that at no point did he have communications with the San Diego State staff, as they were unable to talk to him due to NCAA tampering bylaws. For its part, when reached by CBS Sports for comment, San Diego State was unable to discuss the matter in any way, shape, or form.

Still, Izundu liked what he saw in San Diego and decided that he would like to contact them in order to see if it would be a fit. After all, he got to hang out on the beach, and the Aztecs have an opening inside for a big man due to the graduations of Skylar Spencer, Angelo Chol and Winston Shepard. It would seem like a really good fit for the big man who has decided to move on …

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