We should have known Jose Perez’s college basketball career would end with one final confounding headline.
Perez dropped 25 points for Arizona State on Thursday in the loss to USC, and after participating in postgame activities he vanished – like a thief in the night – leaving the Sun Devils short handed in an eventual 59-47 loss to UCLA on Saturday.
‘Personal’ was the reason given by school officials, and Pac-12 Network broadcaster Cavan Malayter was told he is pursuing professional opportunities.
So ends the final season of Perez’s tumultuous college basketball career, which began back in 2018-19 at Gardner-Webb in the Big South – where he posted back-to-back 15 point per game seasons. That led to him spending one season at Marquette, where he only appeared in 10 games due to injury.
What followed was another transfer and an outstanding season at Manhattan (18.9 points per game) and then – you guessed it – another transfer, this time to West Virginia. He left Manhattan due to his coach getting let go, and despite the NCAA normally granting a waiver in these cases he was not, forcing him to sit for the 2022-23 season.
Perez planned to return to WVU and finally see the floor, even after coach Bob Huggins was fired, but a messy academic dispute resulted in Perez suddenly leaving the Mountaineers and ultimately ending up in Tempe with Arizona State in September.
The 6’5 guard finished his final collegiate season averaging 13.5 points for the Sun Devils – second on the team behind Frankie Collins – and some of his final words to the press came after the team’s surprise win over then No. 21 Washington State two weeks ago:
“We gotta go out with pride,” Perez said. “Our pride gotta get in the way. We go, win out, get the best seed possible and see the standings, who we match up with. It’s all about matchups in March.”
Arizona State earned the No. 11 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and will square off against No. 6 Utah on Wednesday – and they’ll have to make their run without their second leading scorer.