Charles Villanueva, NBA or Illinois?

[JTG51]

There has been some debate here about whether Villanueva would chose Illinois or the NBA, I think there might have even been a bet between Clarkmeister and Irish Hand. It turns out he's not going to either. He's just committed to UConn. I told you guys to watch out for that, Calhoun specializes in big spring signings. Unfortunately I don't have a link. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Anyone know what the odds in Vegas of UConn winning it all next year are? The preseason #1 just got a little stronger. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

[IrishHand]

He already declared for the NBA draft. I don't know whether he's signed an agent yet, so I suppose it's possible that he withdrew from it in the past couple days.

(And the bet, which I failed to see quick enough to accept, was: Irish gets NBA and Kansas, Clark gets everything else.)

[JTG51]

He already declared for the NBA draft. I don't know whether he's signed an agent yet, so I suppose it's possible that he withdrew from it in the past couple days.


You are right, he did declare, but he didn't sign an agent. There is still a chance he could stay in the draft, it doesn't look likely right now though.

[IrishHand]

Care to guess how many players in the past 5 years that declared for the draft as high schoolers withdrew their names before the draft? Once those guys are convinced by some moron or another that they're the 2nd coming of Garnett or Bryant, no amount of reality can burst their bubble until the first round is over and their name was never called.

[JTG51]

Care to guess how many players in the past 5 years that declared for the draft as high schoolers withdrew their names before the draft?

Not many, of course.

Now, can you tell me how many high schoolers who put their name into the draft were told they won't be taken in the first round, didn't hire an agent, and announced which college they are going a few weeks before the draft actually stayed in the draft? Probably even less.

I've got my fingers crossed, but I'm smart enough to know this is still very much up in the air. We'll have to wait and see.

By the way, here's the ESPN.com article (http://espn.go.com/ncb/news/2003/0601/1561622.html) .

[IrishHand]

Well....he said which college he would go to - if he decided to attend college - many months ago (Illinois) in the exact same manner that basically every other "my agent/coach/buddy says I'll be a first-rounder so I'm going to declare for the NBA draft" high school player. The only hiccup was that his team's coach left his team, which led him to look elsewhere. Had Self stayed in Illinois, Villanueva would be no different than all the rest...

I can't see him acting any different than the rest of them - since that's the way he's acted for the past year. He'll convince himself he'll make the first round, in part because some team or another will tell him they'll draft him if he's available late in the 1st. (Teams tell this to a lot of players - it increases the talent pool, which tends to be a good thing for NBA teams for a number of reasons.) He'll probably fall into the 2nd round and end up signing for the league minimum. If he's a hard worker, maybe he goes the way of Rashard Lewis/Gilbert Arenas. If he's not, he fades away like most other high schoolers who thought they were ready for the NBA.