Senior Year Doesn't Help Draft Stock...

[GOMU1104]

Gary Parrish writes about it:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24548616/a-senior-year-doesnt-help-most-real-nba-prospects-the-way-some-suggest

Totally agree. Everyone just assumes that players (Vander Blue) will increase their stock with an extra year.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Agreed. That's why I've supported Vander's decision despite it hurting MU and why I think Kaminsky is making a mistake, though I get his reasoning. Having a shot at the NBA is pretty uncommon. If you really want to get there, you take your shot when you can. It may or may not work out, but your odds won't get better by passing on the NBA.

[MUMac]

Gary Parrish writes about it:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24548616/a-senior-year-doesnt-help-most-real-nba-prospects-the-way-some-suggest

Totally agree. Everyone just assumes that players (Vander Blue) will increase their stock with an extra year.

The one difference with Blue was his age. He was very young for a Senior. He would have been similar to a Jr coming out this year (age wise).

[Markedman]

But we know of 2 seniors who used their last season to get drafted.....Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder.

Now I understand they weren't going to be drafted if they left a year early but they still used their senior year to improve their stock from undrafted to late first/early 2nd round.

Vander could have easily done the same......

[GOMU1104]

And Wes Matthews had a great senior year and did not get drafted. Obviously worked out for him in the end, but that doesn't change the fact that his stock wasn't impacted.

[Phantom Warrior]

Add Lazar to Jae and Jimmy. He improved his stock dramatically as a senior.

I think Kaminsky is making the right decision. I still think Vander blew it (pun not intended). He should have come back. He would probably be a first round pick this year.

[Goose85]

Big Frank should have gone as he was a boarder line first rounder. I think that is the point of the article. Boarderline first rounders should go as their stock does not normally improve senior year. The difference with Vander is most indications were he wouldn't be drafted at all and he wasn't. Come back and have a big year and I think he would have been drafted.

[unclejohn]

I found the article rather unconvincing. He mentions that only 5 seniors were drafted in the first round. OK, but that means a lot of cant miss underclassmen got drafted first. It does not mean that those seniors would have been drafted a year earlier. And while players can make a nice career for themselves in Europe, the money is usually much better in the NBA, and that is what they all dream of. I do think Vander would have benefited from another year. He would have drawn more attention from scouts. I think he would have had a good chance of being drafted, at least in the second round, and as the author points out, that usually gets a player into the league at some point.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Maybe so, but Vander did get into the league. Obviously there's no definitive answer, but he wanted to come out early and play in the NBA, both of which he did, so it's hard to say he was wrong.

Though when it comes to VB, I always expect people to say it anyway.

[TheSultan]

Vander made it to the league. A lack of a senior year isn't what prevented him from staying there.

[mutpm]

We will never know what could have been, but I believe Vander made the right choice. If he came back and played marginally better than he did as a junior, he most likely has a ceiling of being picked in the 2nd round. I'd rather take my chances as an undrafted player than a 2nd rounder.

[Nukem2]

We will never know what could have been, but I believe Vander made the right choice. If he came back and played marginally better than he did as a junior, he most likely has a ceiling of being picked in the 2nd round. I'd rather take my chances as an undrafted player than a 2nd rounder.
The big benefit of staying is that he would, at least, have been closer to a degree. As it is now he is a basketball nomad. Would he be better off financially going to Europe rather than doing the D-League? Sure, he got a 10 day NBA contract. But, that's history for now. Guess he'll have to do the Summer League and try to latch on someplace.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Pretty sure Van was majoring in basketball, for better or worse.

[MUMac]

We will never know what could have been, but I believe Vander made the right choice. If he came back and played marginally better than he did as a junior, he most likely has a ceiling of being picked in the 2nd round. I'd rather take my chances as an undrafted player than a 2nd rounder.

In retrospect, with the way buzz "coached" this team, he was better off leaving. I am not sure staying would have meant much, with a coach who mailed it in.

That said, this is a deeper draft than last year. I understood why he chose to leave last year. As far as being drafted, it did not work out. That said, staying may not have been in his best interest.

[JohnnyRev]

On the other hand, I suspect that a main reason Buzz may have "mailed it in" last year was because Vander's leaving left him really short and I hear that he was not able to get Marquette permission to substitute a Juco for Vander (not academically qualified). It is possible that if Vander had stayed, Buzz would have continued his all-out coaching that had been so successful the previous three years.

[mutpm]

I don't think Buzz cut back on his all-out coaching. I have felt that whatever he tried, it didn't work the way he wanted it do with this group of players. I don't question Buzz's work ethic this past season.

[Phantom Warrior]

Buzz coached his ass off to try to win games. He is much too competitive and much too ego-driven to have not given 100% both in practices and during games. There is no way Buzz wanted his string of five straight NCAA Tournament appearances to end. Buzz just made some very questionable decisions relative to playing time and rotations, and this team did not have the type of leadership among the players that he'd had before. Wrong coach for wrong team at wrong time.

[Nukem2]

Buzz coached his ass off to try to win games. He is much too competitive and much too ego-driven to have not given 100% both in practices and during games. There is no way Buzz wanted his string of five straight NCAA Tournament appearances to end. Buzz just made some very questionable decisions relative to playing time and rotations, and this team did not have the type of leadership among the players that he'd had before. Wrong coach for wrong team at wrong time.Yes, its hard to question Buzz's commitment. I would say Buzz made some bad decisions early on before the season and in the NC schedule. In an interview with Hunt in January(?), Buzz said he probably made some bad choices in trying to win games early on and did not stress fundamentals enough. Reading between the lines, seems like Buzz did not get the young guys firmly in touch with what Buzz would like to do and they just never really got into the flow. In the end, Buzz may have relied too much on his upperclassmen who were missing what Vander, Trent and Junior did for the team last year. As a result, a lot of square pegs and round hole this past season...?