Basketball easing transition for ASU’s Kuksiks

After 5,000 miles, two days and eight time zone changes, 15-year-old Rihards Kuksiks landed on American soil in 2003 with a couple of large suitcases and an English vocabulary that consisted of two phrases:

“My name is Rihards,” and “I don’t know.”

This is what he wanted, this new, life-changing experience. Kuksiks had grown bored with basketball in his native Latvia. So the Arizona State freshman — who has emerged as a key player the past month — left everyone behind and landed on Florida’s space coast for his remaining three years of high school.

“I can’t imagine going from Pittsburgh (native) to Istanbul for college at age 18,” ASU coach Herb Sendek said. “I probably wouldn’t have made it for the first week. So I have great admiration and respect for the courage it takes to do that.”

Some Lithuanian friends told Kuksiks about Florida Air Academy, a military school in Melbourne where kids from around the world came to taste American life.

The adjustment for Kuksiks was enormous.

He struggled to learn basic English. He was without his family. He had to wear a school uniform and adhere to strict curfews.

“It’s so hard being away from home,” he said. “But what else would I do back home? Same things all over again.”

Enter Air Academy basketball coach Aubin Goporo, who deals with overseas, non-English-speaking students every day.

Teammates from Russia and Georgia helped Kuksiks adjust, but Goporo became Kuksiks’ best friend and basketball drill sergeant.

Every day, there were intense, two-hour shooting sessions in the gym. Every night, there were talks about basketball, life and even girls.

Rough moments off the floor gave way to smoothness on the floor. A lights-out shooter, Kuksiks helped Air Academy win three consecutive state championships, and he once turned a 49-game winning streak into 50 by scoring 45 points while the team’s best player was injured.

It was Goporo who tipped off ASU about Kuksiks. Goporo had sent other players to college and knew of Sendek from his East Coast days.

Last October, former Sendek assistant Archie Miller flew to Florida. Sendek went the next day. Miller went back a second time, and Kuksiks visited Tempe.

“A kid willing to come over by himself in 10th grade and leave his family, obviously you wonder what would make a kid tick like that,” said Miller, now an assistant at Ohio State. “You saw a kid who really enjoyed the game and was coming over here to get the best competition and college experience not common in his culture.”

Kuksiks arrived in Tempe in late August (much later than his Sun Devil teammates). He knew how to get to his dorm and the gym.

Through vigorous workouts and a diet overhaul, the 6-foot-6 Kuksiks has lost 20 pounds since he arrived. But he rarely played until late January, when the Sun Devils were struggling to score and find someone other than James Harden to make shots.

Kuksiks has averaged 23 minutes, 11 points and three rebounds per game the past four games.

“I knew when he learned he’d be very, very productive,” Goporo said. “He was impatient. When he played for me he used to be the man. He wanted to go right away and help, so to speak. He didn’t understand it takes time to learn.”

Following five consecutive “DNPs” (did not play), Kuksiks has cracked the Sun Devils’ rotation. He had a career-high 15 points in an overtime win against Stanford and matched that total Saturday in a win over Washington.

Kuksiks has thought about returning to Latvia after college. But he also might want life to change his mind again.

“I’d rather experience something new,” he said. “It becomes easy doing the same day after day, but when you face problems you become stronger.

“There’s three more years. That’s a long time.”

UCLA at Arizona State

When: 8:30 p.m. today
Where: Wells Fargo Arena
TV/Radio: FSN Arizona/KTAR (620 AM)
Records: UCLA 23-3, 12-2 Pac-10; ASU 17-9. 7-7

Outlook:
UCLA - Since falling at Washington, UCLA is back on track with three straight wins, including last Saturday against Oregon, where the Bruins trailed by 11 points until they outscored the Ducks 39-17 to end the game. The Bruins are eyeing a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed with their defense. They forced 19 turnovers against Oregon and are second in the league in defense (57.9 points per game). Darren Collison and ASU’s Jeff Pendergraph went to high school together in Ediwanda, Calif.

Arizona State - Don’t expect a repeat performance of the 84-51 loss ASU suffered in L.A. barely three weeks ago. The Sun Devils looked and, on Tuesday, described themselves as basically a deer in the headlights. “It was an avalanche that hit us,” coach Herb Sendek said. “We contributed to it, despite UCLA’s greatness, we made sure we took out our chisel and hit a few rocks ourselves to increase the flow of the avalanche. We more than helped them along. Not that they needed it.” James Harden is trying to become the fifth Pac-10 freshman to lead the league in steals. His 1.92 per game are tops in the Pac-10.