Valentine Izundu, a 6-foot-10 center from Washington State with a 2.7-point career scoring average, may or may not have been the veteran post San Diego State’s basketball team was seeking for next season.

But that’s moot now. The Aztecs are not allowed to speak with him.

Red tape continued to handcuff Izundu on Wednesday when a three-person faculty appeals committee at Washington State upheld coach Ernie Kent’s conditional release of the senior-to-be that prevents him from transferring to SDSU amid allegations of “tampering.”

Izundu can block shots. Kent has blocked him from blocking shots at SDSU.


Tweeted Izundu: “So I’m graduating this year with a 3.0+, made the honor roll, and never had an off court issue. And my coach punishes me for it. #confused”

Izundu had announced his intention to graduate and transfer, meaning he is eligible immediately to play his final year of college basketball. He had privately expressed interest in SDSU after vacationing in San Diego over spring break with a WSU teammate and attending an NIT game at Viejas Arena against IPFW, only for Kent – as coaches sometimes do – to place certain restrictions on any transfer. Schools cannot contact potential transfers without the blessing of their current school.

“The committee decided to uphold the athletic department and Coach Kent’s decision to deny permission to contact San Diego State University,” said an email from the committee to the various parties. “The committee felt that tampering has taken place (improper communication through a third party) and that was the key factor in the decision.”

Chris Gaston, who coached Izundu on the Texas AAU club Houston Preps, confirmed Izundu lost the appeals hearing but laughed at the notion there was any illicit behavior.


“There obviously was no tampering or anything like that,” Gaston said. “He went out there for spring break, liked the weather and everything. It was an innocent thing. They met a girl from San Diego State or something, and she said, ‘Oh, we have a (basketball) game tonight. You should come.’”

Izundu has said he did not receive the tickets from SDSU but from a “friend.”

The Aztecs beat IPFW 79-55 in the opening round of the NIT that night before 8,324 at Viejas Arena, which ended a 72-game sellout streak. Winston Shepard had the first triple-double in school history, but Gaston said Izundu was more influenced by 6-10 center Skylar Spencer, who had no points, three rebounds and two blocks in 15 minutes.

“Valentine is a very similar player to Skylar Spencer,” said Gaston, who has some familiarity with the SDSU program, having worked out Shepard, a Houston native, in the summers. “He’s limited offensively but is an elite shot blocker. He saw how they utilized Spencer and then came home and did his research, and thought: ‘This guy is similar to me. I like how they use him.’


“It was all him reaching out to them, not the other way around. They said they couldn’t talk to him until he got his release. It just looks weird. Valentine goes on spring break to San Diego, then comes back and says he wants to transfer to San Diego State. I’ll be honest, if I was a coach I would have done the same thing as Coach Kent did. But it was all really innocent.”

SDSU coach Steve Fisher was unavailable for comment, but it seems odd that his staff would prematurely pursue a player who averaged 3.8 points and 2.7 rebounds last season for a Cougars team that went 1-17 in the Pac-12 and is headed to his third school (Izundu played two years at Houston before transferring to Washington State).

It is no secret that the Aztecs need a big after losing seniors Spencer (6-10), Shepard (6-8) and Angelo Chol (6-9). Fisher, however, has been adamant that they won’t take a big just to take one.

“If we don’t get anybody else,” Fisher said in February, “if we don’t get a fifth-year guy, if we don’t get a big who can come in and play next year, then we’ll find a way to play with the guys we’ve got. We’ll have enough size and we’ll have enough depth to where I think we’ll be OK.”


Izundu is not the only Cougar who has butted heads with Kent over a transfer this spring. Que Johnson, who accompanied Izundu to San Diego on the spring-break trip and averaged 11.3 points last season, also plans to graduate and transfer. According to a tweet by Johnson’s club coach, Kent initially blocked the 6-5 guard from transferring to more than 20 schools – the entire Pac-12 plus anyone on Washington State’s nonconference schedule next season – before lifting the restrictions.

The t-word has become a sensitive topic around Pullman, heightened by WSU’s worst season since 2003. Izundu and Johnson make it nine players to transfer out since Kent became coach two years ago, including all five players from his first recruiting class.

Meanwhile, SDSU’s search for a big continues. The fifth-year transfer market has been thin on posts, although it is still early. Some players announce their intention to graduate and transfer in the spring; others wait until they finish summer school. In 2011, the Aztecs didn’t land 6-11 graduate transfer Garrett Green until Aug. 6 after losing Kawhi Leonard and the rest of the starting front line from the 34-3 team.