Ferguson declares for the NBA Draft

Dominique Ferguson has had enough with FIU, and has decided to enter the 2012 NBA draft and forgo his last two seasons of collegiate ball. This announcement coming less than a month after his former head coach Isiah Thomas was released from his contract.

Ferguson had originally submitted for a transfer out of FIU during the spring semester while the season will still going on, but decided to stay instead. After the firing of Isiah Thomas, however, he once again tried to get a transfer.

The 6 foot 9 forward from Indiana said he wanted to play closer to home, and that his family could not see him play in person at all because of the distance. The sophomore also didn’t like the way Thomas was fired, saying that he was given just 45 minutes to pack up his stuff and leave, and that none of the players had been given a reason as to why he was let go.

Before Ferguson cameto FIU, he had been recruited from schools such as Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, UCLA and Arizona. He wanted to be a Panther because of the opportunity to play for a legendary coach such as Isiah Thomas.

“It’s not like we came here for FIU. We came here for Isiah Thomas,” Ferguson said.

In his freshmen year, Ferguson averaged 7 points per game and 4.8 rebounds. He improved slightly in his sophomore year by averaging 8.7 points and 6.2 rebounds.

“It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a little bit, with all this stuff going on, me being denied my release twice for no reason,” said Ferguson. “I just think it’s a lot of unneeded drama that’s been caused here, which has led me to have an alternate way to play basketball, to do something that I love. If I’m going to be miserable doing something that I love, I would rather get paid for it then have someone here tell me what I can and can’t do when they don’t know me.”

Ferguson and Thomas talked on the phone for about twenty minutes after his decision had been made, with Thomas congratulating him on his step to becoming a man and making decisions for his life. They also talked about his academics, and Ferguson says he still intends to get his degree, just not at FIU.

Besides Thomas, Ferguson has many other connections in the NBA. Avery Bradley, JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore of the Celtics are three NBA players that Ferguson knows personally, as well as a slew of NCAA players who have also declared for the draft this year.

“I will hire an agent soon, I haven’t yet [because] I’m still interviewing people,” Ferguson said. “ After this I’m going home for a week , then I’ll leave and go to another place and be training for about eight weeks, and see where the NBA workouts go and where all that takes me.”

After Richard Pitino was hired as the new head coach, he said in his press conference that the first thing he did was go around and try to find the players so he could talk to them.

“We talked one time, but it wasn’t about staying he knew I was leaving,” said Ferguson. “He just wished me luck and told me if I need any help that he would help me out.”

When Kentucky won the National championship this year, Ferguson admits that he felt a little bad because he knew that could have been him, since he was recruited by them. Even so, he says that he has no regrets on his decision to come to FIU, and if he had to do it again, he would.

There is no word yet on what other players at FIU are going to do if they don’t get granted their release either.