Purdue C Zach Edey withdraws from NBA Draft
Terrance Shannon back for Illinois also.
And Akins is back for MSU, announced it earlier today.
Is John Beilein back for Michigan?
the nba was angry that day, my friends
Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli
If only we had Beilein, famous for bringing back players longer than they need to be in school to satisfy the fanbase. He was great, but if anyone thinks he could come back and save the program they're delusional. Almost every problem Juwan has faced comes down to NIL and admissions.
Brian Dutcher would like a word…
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/36062999/brian-dutcher-sdsu-fau-proof-need-millions-nil-win
I really am surprised he's back. He's got limitations as a player but I assumed he'd have a go in the NBA. He's a good enough athlete to be a 3-and-D guy at least. I guess the money was good enough to stick around another year at Illinois.
When I saw this news it just confirmed that the M program is totally cursed.
On the flip side, OSU loses all their young basketball talent too so maybe it’s the basketball gods saying Ye Shall Not Pass! to the football gods.
boooooooo
LOL
I would root for it. Root for Kansas.
Effin MSU brings nearly everyone back with an experienced guard oriented backcourt of upperclassmen guards which you know wins pretty much every NCAA tournament. UM is going to be a LOL team. Root for anything that presents roadblocks to the dwarf.
Ahhh!! This is where you make money. Everyone hypes up MSU preseason and all throughout. MSU gets a 1 2 or 3 seed and gets ousted before sweet 16. Can’t wait for 2024 for NCAA bracket betting!
Edey is pretty much a taller Dickenson as far as the NBA is concerned. But with his height and wingspan, I think someone will give him a chance .
Conventional "wisdom" among the peasants is that there is little defense played in the NBA. The Edeys and Dickinsons of the world prove that the ability to defend is highly valued there.
Athleticism is highly valued. Still thought Edey would take a chance though. I think waiting another year probably costs him more money in the long run but who knows anymore.
Dickinson at least has an outside shot unlike Edey (he hasn't even attempted a 3 in his college career), so in theory Dickinson could be a very limited stretch big. Edey is a better defender but his entire game is 10-12 feet from the basket and while that works in college it's way harder in the NBA to make a living like that. I agree someone will give him a shot on as a late 2nd rounder but he really is limited in the eyes of the NBA beyond just being really large.
I think Edey is a good kid, but he has no hope as an NBA player. Teams will just instantly put him in pick/switch hell. That's why guys like Whiteside and Dwight Howard can't even find a roster spot anymore.
On the one hand, you barely need to switch -- a stretch 5 will give Edey problems. Just draw him away from the basket and he's done.
On the other, Howard was 6'10", 265 lbs; Edey is 7'4"/305. The NBA has evolved so much toward athleticism and creating space, I don't know if any roster has an answer for a 90s throwback more akin to Shaq than Howard. Shaq gave the NBA fits back when every team had a 7-footer. They're now endangered in the NBA, and Edey's a much better FT shooter than Shaq ever was.
And yeah, Purdue lost in the 1st round again, but that wasn't Edey's fault. He put in a typical day for himself, 7/11 FG & 7/10 FT for 21 points, 15 rebounds, 3 blocks. The rest of the team shot 5/26 from 3.
I dunno, man. Put him in the middle of a zone, eat some 3s, but also have this guy shooting >60% from two, with tons of and-ones? And he's a monster on the boards, so I think you could make the math work with Edey on the court.
It takes some teeth-gritting to live with his liabilities as a defender, but I also want to see if some team has the guts to dare modern NBA fives to stop him. Take the Nuggets, favored to win the championship. Their largest player is Nikola Jokic, 6'11"/284. Edey has five inches and twenty pounds on him.
Yeah, Edey can't defend anyone. . . but who's gonna defend him?
He's not that skilled of a player or scorer though. For comparison, Boban actually has great hands and great touch, and he can't get anything more than garbage mins in the NBA. They're roughly the same size. Edey is more athletic and has a longer wingspan, but he also struggles to establish position and catch an entry pass in the post, and he constantly gets stripped on rebounds and shots bc he brings the ball down and doesn't have the hands to hold on to it. Maybe he improves, but I just don't see it. Far better post players are buried on NBA benches or playing overseas bc modern basketball just doesn't favor a slow-twitch 5.
Ya but Dickinson has the inner courage to wear a ski mask.
I still love this about him:
We are so boned. Like, single-digit wins boned.
That’s true whether Edey came back or not, right?
Boned harder. At least Dickinson got paid. Makes me feel much better.
/s
We still have Hunter Dickinson. Maybe Kansas will be playing Purdue.
and boned from the inside out. This will be an epic year of finger-pointing and CYA's.
It is crazy (and not in a fun-subs kind of way) how much the fortunes of the Hoops program have fallen over the last year.
Thank God the football program got its act together finally or it would be really grim around these parts.
Fallen over the last year but began three years ago. People get mad but Howard has to go for this team to compete again. He even has the same staff right now. How? How could he see that as warranted?
I'll play part of that game. If you explore replacing some of the staff, who goes, and exactly why?
(I'm open to discussions on Howard's performance. Things don't look great now.)
Can't wait for the round of 32 loss and the "we made it further than last year" talk!
round of 32 loss? for us? shirley, you must be kidding. we are more likely to have 32 losses.
oh, how the (quasi) mighty have fallen in hoops.
I think he means Purdue.
Round of 32...now this is funny.
Maybe if "round of 32 loss" is a euphemism for not receiving an NIT invite.
Tarris Reed's sleep schedule just got shortened.
We got TWill back so we’re even
Never change, Rick!
Honestly surprised it took him this long to decide. Edey would have been a great draft pick as recently as 10 years ago, but the NBA puts no value into that type of skill set anymore. He will probably have a much better opportunity at PU anyways, earning NIL $$ and the everlasting affection of the Boiler faithful, which is preferable to playing back to backs in Sioux Falls and Southaven (MS) in my opinion
That's some dark magic right there from Mad Eye Underwood.
*the sound of Kansas writing a bazillionty dollar check*
NBA Big Man or NFL Running Back, which one position are you most surprised has been marginalized in pro sports?
Running Back, the 2005 NFL draft had 3 RBs taken in the top 5. The 2023 draft had the Lions draft a RB and they were round house kicked in the face by pundits and fans.
Double Post
Well at least some teams are getting good basketball news.
Well at least some teams are getting good basketball news.
If we could get Juwan Howard to leave for NBA with Jett…..