As you probably know, the NBA’s Early Entry draft withdrawal deadline is Monday June 16. We’re still working on figuring out the exact time of that deadline, but suffice it to say that there are several high-profile programs eagerly anticipating the decisions of some of their charges over the weekend.
We thought it would be interesting to keep tabs on these 21 players over the weekend. We’ll update this list as the news comes available. Feel free to send us a tip if you hear anything about any particular player as well. Good decisions; bad decisions? That’s for next week’s analysis. Just take two valiums instead of the usual one, Chapel Hill.
Updated 5:30 pm PDT Monday 6/16:
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Huge news that all three Carolina players are returning – another update, Katz says that Ellington and Green are returning, but Lawson’s status is still unknown… hmmm…. nevermind, Lawson is staying. Prohibitive favorite in 2009 much? How much did Lawson’s ‘driving after drinking’ incident play into this decision? It could be just as fortuitous as Brandon Rush’s ACL injury last year ultimately was for Kansas.
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Where are the Pac-10 decisions? Cal’s Ryan Anderson finally decided to stay in the draft, but we haven’t heard anything from Arizona’s Chase Budinger or UCLA’s LR Mbah a Moute yet. Mbah a Moute is going into the draft, and Budinger is staying at UA for another year.
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Gonzaga’s Jeremy Pargo is returning to school. This is a sound decision, and it puts the Zags as a top five possibility next season. Same goes for Texas guard AJ Abrams, who had almost no shot at getting drafted this year.
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Alabama got some good news with the announcement that Ronald Steele is returning, but it wasn’t all peaches in T-town today because Richard Hendrix is leaving.
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From the stupid is as stupid does file, Bill Walker has decided to stay in the draft despite injuring his knee (again) yesterday at a predraft workout.
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Joe Alexander seemed to really enjoy WVU, but his decision was a no-brainer. It’s incredible to think nobody even knew about this kid at the beginning of January.
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Super Mario’s stock probably will never be higher, so it’s a solid decision for him to leave at this point. IUPUI’s George Hill is taking a bit of a gamble, but we’re sure he’s thinking what else can I accomplish at this level?
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Nobody seems to know about Josh Akognon (update: Akognon is staying), but we finally verified that Lester Hudson will be returning to school and Jamont Gordon is leaving Mississippi St.
