Ferguson enjoyed Australian detour on the way to NBA

Matt Velazquez
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Terrance Ferguson  goes through a drill at the NBA draft combine. Ferguson played professionally in Australia last season.

CHICAGO — If you watched any of the coverage of the NBA draft combine over the past two days, you probably saw plenty of recognizable names and faces. There were NCAA Tournament stars, Associated Press all-Americans and one-and-done college standouts scattered throughout the gym at Quest Multisport.

Terrance Ferguson, a 6-foot-7, 184-pound wing who played high school basketball in Dallas, doesn't fit any of those groupings. While his peers decided to attend college, Ferguson opted to spend the past year playing professionally in Adelaide, the capital city of the state of South Australia.

That decision has made Ferguson, a 2016 McDonald's All-American and projected first-round draft pick, something of an international man of mystery heading into the NBA draft on June 22.

"I never heard about that, but it's good to hear," Ferguson said with a laugh. "Mystery man. I'm going to show them."

Ferguson didn't always plan on going to Australia. He committed to play collegiate hoops at Arizona but didn't enroll in large part because he was unlikely to been cleared academically. Ferguson spent time in high school at Prime Prep Academy in Dallas, a school that was co-founded by Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders in 2012 and shut down in January 2015 because of financial insolvency.

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With his ability to play in college in doubt, Ferguson explored other options. He sought the insight of Emmanuel Mudiay, who also attended Prime Prep and then spent a season playing professionally in China before being drafted seventh overall by the Denver Nuggets in 2015.

"Me and Emmanuel Mudiay are like brothers, so I talked to him every day before I did it," Ferguson said. "He actually told me I was in a better position than he was, so after he said that I was like, 'I can't go wrong with doing this.'"

In going to Australia, Ferguson left everything he knew. He had no ties to Australia, no friends there and didn't know any coaches. The only person he knew when he arrived was his mother, who joined him on the trip and lived with him.

What Ferguson found were beautiful beaches, ardent basketball fans, lots of people wearing the jersey of last year's No. 1 pick Ben Simmons and what he believes was a higher level of basketball than he would have faced in college. Instead of battling his peers, he had to match up against veteran players who were physically more mature.

During his year with the Adelaide 36ers, Ferguson didn't play much, so his stats don't pop off the page. He averaged 4.6 points points while playing 15.2 minutes a game.

Still, Ferguson found the experience beneficial, especially when it comes to handling life off the court.

"Just learning the basics of being a professional," Ferguson said, "which is just take care of your body, the recovery, the food you put in your body and take care of your money, spending right and being smart with it."

On the court, he had plenty of NBA scouts make the trip to see him. He spoke with 13 teams during the combine, including the Milwaukee Bucks, and in general he received positive feedback from those interviews.

"They don't tell me anything," Ferguson said when asked what skills teams have told him he needs to improve. "They just told me my game is going to translate to the league, which is my shooting and my defense."

The Bucks, who have a reputation for being attracted to long, versatile, athletic players, could be interested in Ferguson. He only shot 31.4% on 67 three-point attempts in 30 games, but projects to be a "three and D" type player at the NBA level. In addition to his shooting ability, Ferguson has gained the nickname "2K" for his proclivity for throwing down video-game style dunks.

If Ferguson is available and the Bucks take him with the No. 17 pick, it wouldn't be the first time Milwaukee selected an American player who played abroad instead of going to college. With the 10th pick in 2009, the Bucks took Brandon Jennings, who spent a year after high school playing professionally in Italy.

Ferguson has already fielded calls from high schoolers who are interested in following his path. Due to the NBA's rule that players have to be one year removed from high school and at least turning 19 years old during the year of the draft, the most common practice is for top-level players to spend a year in college.

"You have to be mentally strong to do that," Ferguson said of going from high school to playing professionally abroad. "If you're mentally strong, then yes I would (recommend it). But if not, go to college."

Ferguson has no regrets about his choice. While many of his peers were taking college classes when they weren't on the basketball court, he used his free time to visit Adelaide's beaches among other things. In fact, he literally didn't lose sleep thinking about what was happening in college games across the ocean.

"College games came on at like 5 in the morning, so I didn't watch them at all," Ferguson said. "I wasn't about to wake up to watch no college games.

"I had more important things to do."