Casto says he's headed to Turkey

WASHINGTON STATE basketball star DeAngelo Casto, in a brief statement on his Twitter account, said he will turn pro in Turkey next season.

Casto passed up his senior season at WSU after averaging 12 points (third on the Cougars) and a team-leading 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots per game last season.

Casto had a series of workouts with NBA teams prior to last month's draft, and had some observers thinking he might sneak into the tail end of the second round.

He went undrafted, however. In normal years that likely would have led him to playing in the NBA summer league in hopes of securing a free agent contract. But the labor unrest between players and owners has led to a lockout and all basketball operations, including the summer league, are on ice.

For undrafted players, that's a body blow to their chances of making an NBA team this season. But it's a boon to overseas teams that now have more young talent, available earlier, to woo.