NBA Draft
Just like most college seniors graduating into the real world, NCAA men's basketball players will be worried about where their jobs will take them, or if they will even land a contract. These seniors, however, have to deal with a type of adversity most others do not- younger college and high school students. In this year's NBA draft, 75 early-entrants (high school seniors through college juniors) from the United States and 34 from Europe will compete with those players who dared to remain in college for all 4 years. Here are some things to ponder:
UNC's Sean May, Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, and Marvin Williams all declared as early-entrants. That would be the Tar Heels' starting 5 and 6th man, also known as the top 6 scorers. UNC now has 1 player left (Quentin Thomas) who has any career starts (1).
LSU PF Brandon Bass is making his 2nd attempt at getting drafted, thus losing his final year at school for good. While athletic, he is a 6-7 'tweener in a league with 6-11 power forwards with even greater athleticism.
Duke PF Shavlik Randolph has entered the draft. With his career numbers (6.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg), who wouldn't enter the NBA draft? Smart move, he obviously doesn't need any more Duke University education after all...
Big underclassmen names entering the draft are leaving college basketball with a hollow feel- no more Jarrett Jack, John Gilchrist, Carl Krauser, Chris Paul, Kevin Pittsnogle, Christ Taft, Charlie Villanueva, Dee Brown, Deron Williams, Francisco Garcia, or North Carolina basketball program.
CollegeHoops.net ranks exactly zero college seniors in the top two tiers of players available, and it will be interesting to see how far talented and seasoned players like Hakim Warrick, Ryan Gomes, Julius Hodge, and Channing Frye drop because people draft today based on "potential."
posted by Jay @ 3:02 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Its great to be back. A recent trek up mt everest suspended my entries. I feel that ncaa basketball players have been cursed with cockiness. From what i have heard from my sources, many of the players that get some kind of playing time strongly believe that they will make it to the big time.Since they play for a legit d1 team (Shavlik Randolph), they will automatically get a huge contract and find themselves in the spotlight. Mr Randolph needs to wake up and smell the roses: There is no chance he gets drafted. I would have to agree with you when you say college seniors are getting the raw end of the deal. Players like Gomes and Hodge will not go as high in the draft as they should, primarily because of their age. I can see Hodge being a fairly high pick because of his performance this year in march. I would predict a late first round pick. As for Ryan Gomes, the guy can play. However one thing that will kill him as a potential first round pick is Providence's pathetic Big East Performance last year. But the owners must understand that one man cannot run a team. If you were to just look at what Gomes had backing him up, it would be easier to empathize. But you cant argue with a 37pt 13reb performance against uconn, and the all time scoring record for Providence, a pretty prestigious basketball school. I would say late first round to early second round. I can see Warrick being the highest pick among the seniors because of his success last season. But there is really no chance he can match up against the premier big men in the league. May you have a great weekend.
Larry "Salvatore" Kinklish
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