Colorado State PG Jon Octeus Denied Admission to UCLA

The hits just keep coming in Westwood for the UCLA men’s basketball team.

Fresh on the heels of the news that freshman Jonah Bolden was ruled academically ineligible by the NCAA last week, former Colorado State point guard Jon Octeus was denied admission to UCLA on Sunday, the Coloradoan reports. Octeus was primed to step in and assume the starting PG role for the Bruins after the departures of guards Zach LaVine, Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams to the NBA.

Octeus has since graduated from Colorado State and would have been eligible to play immediately for the Bruins, a move that Octeus himself has called a “business decision.” Octeus has expressed his desire to play professionally, stating “I do want to play at the highest level. I do want to play professionally and need to give myself the best opportunity to do so.” Octeus felt that his transfer to UCLA would have helped propel him towards the NBA draft, as the UCLA garners more exposure for their basketball program than Colorado State. Things, however, seemed to work just fine for small school point guards such as Steve Nash, Rodney Stuckey and Damian Lillard in the NBA.

Student-athletes graduating early and moving on to a different program with one year of eligibility is nothing new for the NCAA, but complications do sometimes arise in the transfer process. The details are still fuzzy for Octeus going forward, as Colorado State no longer has a scholarship spot available for him. Octeus took to Twitter Sunday night to vent his frustration:

Octeus seemed to be a bright spot for UCLA head coach Steve Alford in rebuilding his program that lost three key players to the NBA draft. This, coupled with the Jonah Bolden news from last week, does make for an uphill battle for the Bruins as they look to kick off their season seven weeks from now against Azusa Pacific on Oct. 31.