NORMAL - Champ Oguchi walked away with his degree in political science from Illinois State in May. Now, he's ready to get off and running on the next step in his basketball life.

Oguchi, a 6-foot-6 guard who led ISU in scoring this past season, is home in Houston. He is waiting to hear from his agent, Eric Fleisher of New York, about the start of his professional career.

"He's in the process of talking to a lot of teams," said Oguchi on Thursday. "One of the deals he's looking at is France or Belgium. We're in the process of seeing where all that goes."

Oguchi also is holding out hope of playing for a team in the NBA Summer League July 10-19 in Las Vegas. That could possibly lead to a training camp spot with an NBA team in the fall.

There has been plenty of basketball for Oguchi since he left ISU. He just finished a training camp with the Nigerian National Team in Houston, with another slated to begin July 20. The team is preparing for the African Championship in Libya beginning Aug. 4.

Oguchi can play for Nigeria because both his parents, Godwin and Pearl, were born there. He was on the Nigerian National Team in the 2006 World Championships in Japan. Nigeria is hoping to qualify for next year's World Championships in Turkey.

"I've been going pretty much every day since I left Normal (a couple days after graduation)," said Oguchi. "I'm going to take time for a while to wait and step away a little."

Oguchi played his first three years at Oregon before transferring to ISU in August 2007. He sat out a year as a transfer before scoring 15.4 points per game in helping the Redbirds to a 24-10 record. His 90 3-pointers were three short of Jeff Harris' single-season school record. Oguchi was named to the all-Missouri Valley Conference second team.

Injuries forced the lanky Oguchi to play at the power forward spot much of the season with ISU. Those days appear to be over.

"I'll be a two guard," said Oguchi of his future playing spot.