Bulldogs’ signee Efe Odigie to explore options in wake of Terry departure

Fresno State men’s basketball signee Efe Odigie, a 6-foot-8 power forward/center who is expected to come in this fall and add a skilled big body to the Bulldogs’ front line, said he will be evaluating his options with the departure of coach Rodney Terry.

“It’s something that me and my family have to sit back and make a decision on,” Odigie said. “For right now nothing has really changed, but we still have to evaluate it.

“It was just finalized, so I haven’t really been able to wrap my mind around it myself, but it most definitely will be evaluated and we’ll make a decision from there.”

Terry resigned as Bulldogs coach on Monday to go to Texas-El Paso, leaving behind a program that he had built from the ground up into a yearly contender in the Mountain West featuring two returning all-conference selections in junior guard Deshon Taylor and sophomore forward Bryson Williams, though Taylor is expected to be in position academically to leave as a graduate transfer if he chooses.

Fresno State had won 20-plus games three seasons in a row and in four of the past five. It also in its 2018 recruiting class has 6-5 guard Isaac Likekele from Mansfield, Texas.

Odigie, from the Pro-Vision Academy in Houston, said the next coach at Fresno State would not factor into his decision whether to request a release.

“It really doesn’t matter at that point,” said Odigie, who also had scholarship offers from Tulsa, Arkansas State and Texas State. “Of course, I would like to know if I still do go to Fresno State who will be coaching me. But the coach who I was originally with has already left so at this point another coach doesn’t make that big a difference.

“That’s something that we’ll look at, as well, but I just have to sit down and see what’s going on and we’ll go from there.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2018 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Bulldogs’ signee Efe Odigie to explore options in wake of Terry departure."