Jose Perez leaves Arizona State basketball before final game for personal reasons

Jose Perez ended his Arizona State men’s basketball career early with one game left on the regular season schedule and the Pac-12 Tournament ahead.

After scoring a team-high 25 points in a loss to USC on Thursday, Perez left the program for personal reasons, a team spokesperson confirmed to Arizona Sports. He is expected to pursue professional opportunities.

Perez took to social media on Sunday to send a message to ASU fans, teammates and staff, citing family circumstances as the cause of his early departure.

“Last couple weeks been rough for me and my family and I have been overwhelmed with a lot of things thrown at me but one thing I will always be grateful for is Arizona State University and coach Hurley and the rest of the staff and my teammates,” he wrote.

 

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The 6-foot-5 Perez scored at least 20 points eight times in his lone season in Tempe, the most on the team. ASU was 6-2 in those games.

He started in 27 games, appearing in all 30, before departing between road matchups with USC and UCLA, the final stretch of the regular season for ASU.

ASU was Perez’s fifth school after starting his career at Gardner-Webb before stops at Marquette, Manhattan and West Virginia, where he was enrolled but never played and was let go due to a reported “academic situation.” His first stop was the only one that lasted more than one season.

The 25-year-old Perez left the Sun Devils with a Saturday night matchup against UCLA still to go as well as a trip to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament beginning Wednesday. ASU is the No. 11 seed in the field and will face Utah in the first round.