By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Rick Hughes got more than 21 games from his sole NBA experience, four years ago in Dallas. He found love.

Now satisfaction in his off-court life, including marriage last summer and a baby due in four weeks, are fueling a possible return to the NBA for the Walnut Hills High School and Thomas More College product.

"It seems he has a new focus," said Sam Foggin, Hughes' Florida-based agent. "At 30, he may be playing his best basketball ever."

Hughes is hearing MVP talk while he tears up the top pro league in France. He leads it in scoring (22.0 avg.) and ranks fourth in rebounds (8.1). He is shooting 61.6 percent, leading Strasbourg - which was 3-7 a week after his arrival - to its current 14-9 mark.

His stats are up considerably from last season, when he averaged 15.3 points and 6.5 rebounds in 14 games in the same league for Dijon. Hughes attributes that to the fact his wife, Keywaina, now lives with him after a three-year courtship.

"If you lose a game, you have something to fall back on," he said. "If you're in the house by yourself, you think, 'If I'd have hit this shot ...' Now it's not just basketball anymore."

Basketball nomad

Hughes, a basketball nomad, has played for nine teams in eight different leagues in the eight years since graduating from Thomas More. That's not counting various other tours and summer leagues stateside or in Europe.

He made the NBA on the strength of his 1998-99 season in Lebanon, when his scoring average (36.3 ppg) was tops of any pro league in the world.

Hughes averaged 3.9 points and 10.7 minutes during his 21-game stint with the Mavericks in 1999-2000. More importantly, that's where he met Keywaina, who worked in the team's community relations office.

"After I left (Dallas), we racked up some phone bills the last few years," Hughes said.

They married last June in Cincinnati, and Keywaina quit her job. A year earlier, the Boston Celtics had asked Hughes to go to camp with them, but he went to France where the money was better - and guaranteed.

Married life suits him

"Getting married, you make it a point to be financially secure for a while," he said. "Plus in European basketball, the top four leagues are Spain, Greece, France and Italy, and if you can play well in one of those four, (NBA) people will be looking at you."

Times have changed. In 1996, Hughes tried out in France for the Roanne team but didn't get the job. He was a 6-foot-8, 220-pound forward. Now he's 6-9, 245 with smooth ballhandling skills, mixing long-range shooting with inside muscle, and he's a star in France.

"From early on (this season), teams were double- and triple-teaming me," he said. "I came in with a newfound sense of, 'In order to make it to the next level, I have to prove to people I can play.' If I can do it on a triple-team here, I can do it on a one-on-one (in the NBA)."

Foggin, who doubles as a scout for the Orlando Magic, said NBA teams are talking about invitations to July summer camps. Hughes, who said extensive training has him "outrunning guys younger than me," will seek a guaranteed contract.

Hughes and his wife are expecting a boy, which Hughes plans to name Rick Jr. Marriage and impending fatherhood have meant perspective.

"It lets you know you're not only playing for yourself now," Hughes said. "It used to be about making the NBA or seeing the world. Now you see it as, 'This is how I live.' "

True globetrotter

Rick Hughes' pro basketball career has taken him around the world:

Season	Team	Country/League
'96-96	Dakota Wizards	IBA
'97-98	Omonia	Cyprus
'98-99	Rosaire (Beirut)	Lebanon
'99-00	Dallas Mavericks	NBA
'99-00	Idaho Stampede*	CBA
'00-01	Ourense	Spain
'01-02	Kansas City Knights	ABA
'02-03	Dijon	France
'03-04	Strasbourg	France

(*finished season in CBA after being waived by Mavericks)

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E-mail nschmidt@enquirer.com