CORVALLIS – Ahmad Starks, Oregon State's all-time leading three-point shooter who struggled through an up-and-down junior season, said Friday that he plans to transfer.

Starks, a 5-foot-9 guard from Chicago, said he wants to return to Illinois to play and be closer to his ailing grandmother.

"My plan is to be somewhere in the state of Illinois, as close to home as possible,'' said Starks, who said the University of Illinois and Bradley are among the potential destinations. "It's not a personal thing, with the coaching staff or anything like that. It's just about me being close to home and to my grandma. I don't know how much time she has left.''

Mazola Robinson, who raised Starks, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Starks said the Beavers' disappointing 2012-13 season was not a factor in his decision.

"Obviously, the season was disappointing,'' Starks said. "But some of the reason, on my part, is my grandma. A lot of my head was there.''

Starks came into 2012-13 with hopes of shouldering most of the scoring load left by the departure of Jared Cunningham, and in the early going it appeared he might.

Starks followed an 18-point season debut with a career-high 33 against New Mexico State. Later in November, he scored 25 as the Beavers put a scare into Kansas.

But in December, he started to fade, totaling just 24 points over a five-game stretch leading up to Pac-12 play. In the first three conference games, Starks averaged 17 points, but then the Beavers began to move away from a Starks-led offense.

Against Stanford on Feb. 21, Starks played a scoreless 21 minutes. OSU coach Craig Robinson did not start him the next game, ending a streak of 62 consecutive starts.

Starks finished with a 10.4-point average, down from the 12.1 points he scored as a sophomore. He watched teammates Devon Collier, Roberto Nelson and Joe Burton all pass the 1,000-point mark in career scoring, only to fall just shy himself, finishing with 991.

Even what should have been a highlight of the season was bittersweet. On the night he became the Beavers' all-time leader in three-pointers made (185), Oregon State blew a halftime lead – one of seven such blown leads on the season – in losing at Washington.

Many of Starks' three-pointers were of the long, rainbow variety, and he was capable of carrying his team and demoralizing the opponent for short stretches. Also, with an 86 percent free-throw percentage for his three-year career, he was the team's best shooter from the line.

But he seemed increasingly burdened as the season progressed, and on Friday he made it official that he has put up his last three-pointer in a Beavers uniform.

It also brings to an end an unusual player-coach relationship. Robinson (no relation to Mazola) and Starks have known each other since Starks was in the third grade, when he and Robinson's son Avery played soccer together in Chicago.

Starks went on to star at Whitney Young High School, where he led the team to a 4A state title and became a three-star recruit.

The transfer means the Beavers have an available scholarship, but they also are thin in the backcourt. Hallice Cooke, a 6-3 guard from Union City, N.J., will join returning guards Roberto Nelson and Challe Barton, along with swingmen Langston Morris-Walker and Victor Robbins.