We'll get to today's game preview later on, but first the MSM finally caught word that Julian is staying. The first time I heard that he was staying for sure was when Fran Fraschilla was doing a game of ours in Allen Fieldhouse, but apparently they just figured it out. This is what Julian had to say:
"I made the decision before this season that I'm not thinking about [the NBA] at all," Wright said. "I'm coming back."
And Bill Self's remarks:
"He's just a sophomore in college," Kansas coach Bill Self said of Wright. "He's a fabulous talent, and I've said that all along. When he's playing his best, his ceiling is higher than anyone else's. But he's not a natural scorer. That's not what he wants to do. So sometimes he can kind of give the appearance of not impacting the game as much because he's not scoring points."
I'm happy that Julian is coming back, hopefully Brandon and Darrell make that decision as well and we can bring back everybody and be even stronger next season. I think that Julian's decision will be a common one across America, more and more players will decide to stay in school more than a year. While some people think players will just go the 'One-and-Done' route, once a player becomes a member of a team, a college, and a community he will become attached. Sure, plenty of college freshman will declare for the NBA Draft, but don't be surprised if more and more people decide to stick around for at least one more year, because they enjoy college so much. Kevin Durant and Greg Oden going to the NBA where they would be unanimously considered the first and second picks in the upcoming NBA Draft was thought of as a forgone conclusion before the season, but now both players are starting to lean towards staying in college. I'm not sure about whether they played to 'One-And-Done' their college careers, but once they set foot on campus and began to make friends, both on and off the basketball team, it is hard to leave that atmosphere. Not nearly as much pressure, and most importantly you can delay becoming a self-supporting 'adult'. Even though Greg Oden looks like he is 35 years old, he is really just 19 and is still learning the ins-and-outs of life. College is a MUCH better place to do that than being thrown millions of dollars and told to live on your own. I think that both Durant and Oden will stay, along with most of the college freshman that were expected to be drafted (Brandan Wrigh of UNC is one name). The draft will be dominated by juniors and seniors, a lot like the NFL Draft, but will just have the occasional freshman or sophomore player thrown in there.