Moe Odum could return to ASU for 5th college season amid wild summer for NCAA

Moe Odum, who led Arizona State men’s basketball in most stats last season, could be on the verge of a return for his fifth college season.

The point guard was named in a California injunction that granted high school class of 2022 student-athletes a fifth season, the language of which also opened the transfer portal for a short period and barred the NCAA from preventing those with professional contracts from playing.

The injunction made Odum eligible despite a contract he reportedly signed with a European pro team in Kosovo. While his agent previously indicated the point guard would enter the portal, the last chance to do so was by Monday at noon MST, per the court documents.

Odum has practiced with this year’s team to allow for a feeling-out process between him and the new coaches and personnel, sources told Arizona Sports.

The NCAA had a chance to show cause for why the injunction shouldn’t be issued, which was scheduled for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. It isn’t yet clear whether the NCAA made a push or what resulted from any push that did happen.

ASU men’s basketball currently has 14 scholarship spots filled with the 15th and final one still open for someone like Odum. That’s important, as the injunction did not make players exempt from roster limit rules.

It’s also important that Odum was included by name in the California injunction, as the NCAA was granted a stay in the blanket Colorado ruling that initially opened the floodgates for class of 2022 student-athletes.

ASU had a women’s soccer player, Izzy Monck, play in a draw against Texas last Thursday before she was deemed ineligible the next morning because of the stay.

What would Moe Odum’s return mean for ASU men’s basketball?

With previously just two returning players for head coach Randy Bennett’s first season at ASU, Odum playing another in Tempe would mark the return of last year’s leader in points, assists and steals per game, as well as 3-point shooting:

• 16.4 points
• 5.7 assists
• 1.4 steals
• 37.7% on 7.2 3s per game

Bennett has a level of familiarity with Odum’s game dating to when they faced off against each other while both were in the WCC, as the point guard had stops at Pacific and Pepperdine.

Odum was 0-6 against Bennett’s Saint Mary’s, scoring more than eight points in just two of the contests (19 and 14). He also did not have a game with more than four assists across the six games.

He would become the second player on the roster to play minutes for a Power Four team last season, joining fellow returning player Bryce Ford.

It may require an adjustment on the point guard depth chart, as Portland transfer Joel Foxwell has long been expected to start. He led freshmen nationwide with 6.5 assists per game last season.

Play-making behind Foxwell is a question mark without Odum, though, so having two starting-caliber point guards could flip that script if ASU can work out how they share the floor or if they need to be staggered in the rotation.

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