Controversy won't deter Jeff Varem's dreaming

Asked what he wants to do in life, Jeff Varem wastes few words.

"I just want to be rich," said Varem, a junior guard for the Washington State basketball team.

And, he said, he doesn't care how, though the NBA would be nice.

"He just has big dreams," WSU assistant coach Tony Bennett said, "the way most kids do."

Dreams that motivated Varem to leave his native Nigeria at age 15 for a basketball odyssey that has taken him to Toronto, Buffalo, Newark, Vincennes (Ind.) University and, finally, to Pullman, where tomorrow he will try to help the Cougars beat the Huskies.

Varem made the move to the United States in part because he has an uncle in New York who, in the words of Bennett, "has been a huge support for him."

Unable to play high-school basketball, Varem instead suited up for the New Jersey Roadrunners AAU team. Bennett, then an assistant coach at Wisconsin, saw Varem playing in a tournament. Because of eligibility issues, however, Varem had to attend a junior college first.

He spent two years at Vincennes, a school other Nigerians also attended, being named a second-team JC All-American last spring. He was recruited by the likes of Indiana, though new Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, according to Varem, began to lose interest as last season ended.

Varem was still unsigned when Dick Bennett decided to come out of retirement last spring to take over at WSU, bringing his son, Tony, with him as an assistant. One of Tony's first calls was to Varem.

His one constant companion has been controversy. Varem was denied the right to play high-school basketball at any of his stops and was held out of WSU's first eight games this season after being deemed guilty of offenses he barely understood, let alone meant to commit.

A detailed series of stories in the Newark Star-Ledger a few years ago reported that Varem was one of about 15 Nigerians brought to Canada from 1997 to 2000, apparently for the express purpose of gaining easier entry into the United States to play basketball.

The pipeline was fueled by two men who have been accused by some of attempting to profit from the players, largely by asking for a cut from agents interested in representing them. (The group of players also included former Sonic Olumide Oyedeji, the only one to make it to the NBA so far.) There was also an accusation that a Nigerian coach who helped funnel the players to Canada was attempting to make a profit.

American basketball officials began to figure out the scheme when Varem and two others suddenly showed up at Newark East Side High School, living unsupervised in a two-bedroom apartment.

There has been no insinuation that the players did anything wrong, merely that they were trying to fulfill a dream of playing professional basketball in the United States.

But Varem and several others were not allowed to play high-school basketball. And the NCAA held Varem out of the eight WSU games after deciding that the support he received along the way constituted an illegal benefit.

Varem said he didn't want to talk about the specifics of his road to Pullman. But unlike some of the Nigerians quoted in the Star-Ledger article — who expressed dismay and frustration at what has happened to them since leaving home — Varem said he considers the problems he has encountered a small price to pay for the chance to come to America and play basketball.

"Whatever happened, happened," he said. "But I'm hungry and trying to make it in life. You're going to definitely have setbacks. But that's life. And you've got to keep pushing and keep going."

Varem, whose given African first name is Ngutor, is listed as being from Benue, Nigeria. But that's actually the state he's from, which he describes as being "one of the poorest (in Nigeria)."

He grew up, he said, in a town smaller than Pullman and spent much of his youth playing soccer. But in his early teens, Varem — now listed at 6 feet 6 — said he suddenly grew a few inches and decided to try basketball.

It wasn't easy. Games, he said, were often played outdoors in the rain with some players not wearing shoes.

Varem admits he didn't really like Pullman on his recruiting visit but was won over by the presence of Tony Bennett.

"It came down to coming to someone who felt like my friend," Varem said.

Once eligible, Varem quickly emerged as one of WSU's best players. He had 15 points and five rebounds in a win at California and 22 points and seven rebounds in a win at USC, though he seemed to hit a wall last weekend at Oregon when he was held to a combined 11 points in losses to the Ducks and Beavers.

"He has some concentration issues from time to time," Dick Bennett said. "And when it's not going well, it's hard for him to get himself out of that. But I'm hopeful that as he gets more experience he will grow a little more mature in his focus. We have to remember that he has really not played this kind of basketball before."

Varem, who comes off as friendly and affable in interviews, said he didn't expect success to come easily at WSU and isn't discouraged by last weekend.

"The way I look at life, there are people who have shoes but want more shoes," Varem said. "But what if they didn't have feet to even put those shoes on? You've just got to make the best of it."

And that's what he plans to do on his basketball journey. He later explained his "get rich" comment by saying he is not concerned about simply enriching himself, but what he thinks his basketball career can do for family and others back home. With enough size to be a factor inside and the skills to play on the perimeter, Varem figures to have a professional basketball future of some sort, though he is also promising to get his degree from WSU, maybe in economics.

"I feel like God has blessed me," he said. "There are people out there who can't eat, and I feel like if I have it, I can share it with them."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com