Call it a coincidence, but it took a move to Normal, Ill., for things to settle down for Chamberlain Oguchi.
He’s shooting better and playing more than ever in his collegiate career, and his stats bear him out to be one of the best all-around players in the Missouri Valley Conference this season, his only season of eligibility left for the Redbirds after transferring from Oregon in 2007 for reasons involving, well, shooting and playing time.
On the court, everything seems to be going right for the 6-foot-6, 200-pound native of Houston, Texas.
So everything is all right, right?
“Except for the weather,” he laughs, referring to the -31 degree temperature with wind chill last Thursday in Normal.
Oguchi’s game this season has suffered no such effects, making the ending of his cross-country basketball career appear to be on a major rebound. It is certainly the turnaround for a player who arrived at Oregon as part of the most heralded freshman class in basketball history that included Malik Hairston, Maarty Leunen and Bryce Taylor, only to leave three years later unhappy with playing time.
He admits now that the transfer, which forced him to sit out last season, to play one year was risky. Now it looks like it was the best-case scenario, and he insists any hard feelings toward Oregon subsided two years ago.
“It’s all part of what I just call life’s journey,” the redshirt senior guard/forward said. “Everybody’s path is different and I decided to take a different path.”
His maddeningly inconsistent play at Oregon was one reason he stayed grounded on the bench for much of his career. After scoring 10 total points in the first seven games of the Pacific-10 Conference schedule in 2005-06 as a sophomore, he averaged 16.7 in his final 13 games that season, including scoring 63 points in three games at the Pac-10 Tournament.
With higher expectations than ever during the 2006-07 season, when Oregon advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, Oguchi shot 31 percent from the field and averaged only 4.8 points per game. His 15.9 minutes per game were enough to ask for a release, something Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said last week he “hated” to do because of Oguchi’s fit with the team.
“I’m happy for him that he’s having such success because he was a great kid,” Kent said, “and I hated that he left.”
Oguchi’s consistency this season has warranted him as much playing time as he wants – 31.3 minutes per game, to be exact. His 15.4 points per game is fourth in the Missouri Valley, while his per-game averages in rebounds and steals rank within the top-12 individuals in the league, as well. The only player with NCAA tournament experience on the roster, he’s one of the biggest reasons why the Redbirds are 17-3 overall and 6-3 in the MVC. Much like Oregon’s, Illinois State’s system values speed and transition scoring, which was easy for Oguchi to pick up once he arrived.
“The difference has a lot to do with confidence,” Oguchi said. “When some guys aren’t getting the minutes they deserve the confidence is going to drop. Now that I get the minutes I feel like I deserve, I feel like my confidence has skyrocketed.”
Even better is his free throw percentage of 83 percent (fourth in the MVC) and 2.7 three-pointers made per game, which ranks second.
“He played in the Elite Eight, and the next thing you know, he’s on our scout team. That had to be pretty tough,” ISU head coach Tim Jankovich told the Peoria, Ill., Daily Star earlier this season. “He has a lot to prove and he’s very hungry.”
His work during his redshirt year last season has made this year look easy. On offense he went from being a heavily perimeter-focused guard to a “four,” or forward, in ISU’s offense. Playing at the four requires him to guard larger opponents, usually power forwards, and he credits his better results on defense to having all of last year to learn Tim Jankovich’s “intense” defensive philosophy.
“That has a big part to do with why I’m a better defender,” said Oguchi. “At this level and in this conference the defense has to be magnified … and defense creates offense.”
It also means he has a speed advantage over defenders when he’s on offense.
“There aren’t too many guards in this league pushing 6-foot-6 who can drive the ball, shoot the ball and play in the post like he can,” teammate Osiris Eldridge told the Star.
Kent wishes that kind of production would have come at Oregon, although Oguchi wouldn’t have had any eligibility left for this season, when Oregon needs it most. Oregon is 6-14 overall and 0-8 in Pac-10 play. Oguchi starred in a conference win over Drake on Jan. 14 when he scored a career-high 29 points while remembering one of Kent’s favorite phrases.
“‘Big games require big game performances,’” Oguchi remembered Kent saying. “I went into the game with that mindset.”
Oguchi has kept in contact often with his former coaches and teammates since his departure, and vice versa.
Oguchi sent text messages and called assistant coach Kenny Payne during the Ducks’ win over Alabama in November, a moment when Kent knew Oguchi had matured even more as a player and person since he’s found success elsewhere.
“I think his comment was, ‘Boy, I get it now,’” Kent said.
It hasn’t taken two years to reconcile with the Oregon program. As early as the 2007 football season, Oguchi returned to Eugene to join the basketball team for its Elite Eight recognition at halftime of a Duck football game at Autzen Stadium.
“We had him come down on the field with us, so think about that,” Kent said. “We don’t have hard feelings for anybody.”
He talks regularly with old teammates Hairston, Leunen, Taylor and Aaron Brooks among others, all whose basketball has taken them to professional careers. Kent, an Illinois native, said some of his friends back home have seen Oguchi play and told him about the progress.
And so, as Chamberlain Oguchi sits out the coldest winter of his life, he’s seeing it pay off some of the biggest dividends.
“The harsh winter wasn’t so kind to me,” he said. “But it’s something I’m getting used to.”
And that’s all right by him.
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