Full Court Dream first saw the 6-foot-6 Latvian wing with Star Alliance in Italy. Less than a year later, one of Europe’s compelling young prospects is beginning his college career in the Big 12.
By Rick Manahan | Full Court Dream
When I met Ricards Aizpurs in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, last October, he was playing for Star Alliance in the program’s Grind Session debut at the Bridge of Hoops Invitational.
He already looked like a player whose basketball journey would soon extend far beyond Italy.
Now that journey has brought him to Fort Worth, Texas.
Aizpurs is beginning his freshman season at TCU, where the Horned Frogs list him as a 6-foot-6, 220-pound guard wearing No. 8. He arrives in the Big 12 with scoring ability, international experience and the kind of competitive confidence that has followed him from Latvia’s youth national team to Stella Azzurra Roma, the Grind Session and some of basketball’s most important global development camps.
His move to TCU is a major step, but it is not the beginning of his story. It is the next stage of a basketball education already built across countries, age groups and levels of competition.
A European Path to the Big 12
Born August 1, 2008, in Latvia, Aizpurs did not begin playing basketball until he was 12. His first sport was track and field, where he ran the 200 and 400 meters and competed in the shot put. Basketball eventually pulled him in through his older brother, Ingars, who played professionally at Latvia’s highest level.
Athletics run throughout the family. His mother, Irena, and father, Normunds, competed professionally in track. His sister and guardian, Ilva Valeika, played for Latvia’s women’s national basketball team.
Once Aizpurs chose basketball, his development accelerated.
He became part of the Stella Azzurra program in Rome, one of Europe’s respected environments for developing young talent. During the 2024–25 season, he averaged 33.6 points per game in Italian U17 competition. Playing a year above his age group at 16, he also averaged 18 points at the U18 level.
He was a member of the Next Gen team that won the 2025 Adidas NextGen EuroLeague Munich title, then continued building his résumé through Adidas Eurocamp and Basketball Without Borders events.
For Latvia at the 2024 FIBA U16 EuroBasket, Aizpurs averaged 18.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists across seven games. The numbers confirmed what his game already suggested: he was not simply a promising player with good size. He was capable of carrying a significant scoring burden in international competition.
At Basketball Without Borders Europe in 2025, he averaged 8.0 points over four games and earned a place in the camp’s All-Star Five. In February 2026, the NBA and FIBA selected him for the Basketball Without Borders All-Star camp in Los Angeles, an event that brought together 40 leading high-school-age prospects from 29 countries and territories during NBA All-Star Weekend. Aizpurs averaged 8.2 points over five games and was again recognized among the camp’s standout performers.
Those invitations matter. They placed him in front of NBA, FIBA and international evaluators while giving him repeated opportunities to measure his game against elite players from around the world.
They did not make him a finished product.
They made him a player worth studying.
A Statement in Italy
Aizpurs made his Grind Session debut with Star Alliance at the Bridge of Hoops Invitational in October 2025. The event brought the Grind Session’s platform to Italy and gave European players an opportunity to face American competition without leaving home.
Aizpurs made the opportunity count.
Against Southeastern Prep of Florida, he erupted for 38 points, three rebounds and three assists. He shot 15-for-28 from the field and made five of his 12 attempts from behind the 3-point line.
It was the kind of performance that demanded attention. Aizpurs did not look overwhelmed by the stage or the opponent. He played aggressively, trusted his scoring instincts and showed that his production in European youth competition could translate against an American program.
Less than a year after I watched him play for Star Alliance in Italy, he is in the United States preparing to test those same skills at the college level.
Scouting Report
Aizpurs has excellent positional size for a perimeter player. At 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, he has the frame and ball skill to offer more than standstill shooting on the wing.
His clearest offensive strength is the pressure he creates going downhill. He attacks closeouts with force, gets into the paint and is comfortable absorbing contact around the basket. He is not dependent on overwhelming explosiveness. His game is built more on strength, pace, balance and confidence.
There are flashes of three-level scoring. Aizpurs can push the ball in transition, create off the dribble, punish a smaller defender in the post and rise into a smooth jumper when his feet are set. His handle is functional for his size, allowing him to serve as a secondary creator rather than limiting him to a catch-and-shoot role.
He also has value without the ball. He can cut, relocate and take advantage of a defense already bent by another creator. That versatility should be important as he adjusts to TCU, where he will not be asked to carry the same offensive workload he handled in youth competition.
The competitive personality is equally encouraging. Aizpurs has shown that he is willing to handle the ball in national-team settings and that he wants responsibility late in games. He does not disappear from important possessions.
Defensively, he has the size and lateral mobility to match up with multiple perimeter positions. His active hands and hand-eye coordination help him create deflections, while his motor keeps him connected to plays. The question at the college level will be how quickly he adapts to the speed, spacing and physical demands of Big 12 basketball.
His growth areas are understandable for a young wing. He can occasionally play too fast, driving into traffic or attempting to force an opening before the read has fully developed. Improving his pace control, shot selection and passing decisions will determine how consistently he can turn his aggressive style into efficient offense.
The next step is learning when to attack, when to move the defense and when to organize the possession.
More Than a Scorer
Aizpurs’ story carries details that reveal how closely he remains connected to his family and to Latvia.
Before games, he sends the same message to each member of his family and calls his father. He wears No. 8 because he was born in August—the eighth month—of 2008. His favorite basketball memory came while representing Latvia, hearing a home crowd shout his name during his first game in front of them.
He studies Devin Booker and Austin Reaves, two guards who use skill, footwork, pace and body control to create scoring opportunities. Away from basketball, he enjoys bowling.
His long-term ambition reaches beyond his own playing career. When he is finished competing, Aizpurs wants to remain involved in basketball and build a team in Latvia that gives young players the chance to travel, see the world and face the best competition available.
That goal reflects the pathway he is traveling now.
Latvia gave him his foundation. Stella Azzurra sharpened his development in Italy. Star Alliance and the Grind Session allowed him to test himself against American competition. Basketball Without Borders and Adidas Eurocamp placed him among the best international prospects in his age group.
Now TCU gives him a new platform in one of college basketball’s strongest conferences.
For Aizpurs, the distance from Bassano del Grappa to Fort Worth is measured in more than miles. It represents the progress of a young player who has continued to seek a greater challenge at every stop.
Full Court Dream saw an early chapter in Italy.
The next one begins in Texas.
