You asked for it…. And by you I mean the fans at Allen Fieldhouse last Saturday when Kansas University held off Texas, 83-73, to win its fifth-straight Big 12 regular season championship.
There he stood at the free throw line, late in the game, with the voltage of 16,000 smiles slapped across his face.
As KU junior Sherron Collins calmly sank a pair of free throws, the Fieldhouse faithful serenaded him with that famous chant: “One more year. One more year.”
It was not a declaration of how many seasons of eligibility he has remaining, rather a plea for the bowling ball point guard that Jayhawk fans have grown to love to stick around for one more season.
If he does — and if sophomore center Cole Aldrich stays with him — whoa, what a team the Jayhawks would have next year.
But that’s for a different blog. This one, as the title and logo suggest, is about the NBA. So instead of verbalizing just how unbelievable a lineup made up of all of this year’s key players plus Thomas Robinson, Elijah Johnson and perhaps John Wall or Lance Stephenson would be, we’ll briefly analyze the decision that Collins will have on his plate after his junior season.
Should he stay or should he go?
Unlike many who have come before him in the past few years, such a decision might not actually be up to Collins. Sure, he’s the guy with the final say, but it’s amazing how a few words from NBA scouts can sway the opinion of even the most confident basketball players.
The way I see it, Collins will — and should — get a shot in the NBA. At 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, he’s not the ideal size for an NBA point guard. His history of injuries doesn’t help either. But the guy can play. He’s tough, smart and gifted and, having grown up in the Windy City, knows how to play the game even against guys who are bigger and better than he is.
Getting a shot won’t be the problem. After all, guys like UConn’s Khalid El-Amin (34th pick by Chicago in 2000), Michigan State’s Mateen Cleaves (14th pick by Detroit in 2000) and Jameer Nelson (20th pick by Denver in 2004) all got chances and they’re all about the same size as Collins.
For my money, Nelson is the only one of that group on par with Collins in the talent department. He’s also the only one of the three still playing in the league. The other two were more floor generals than scorers, more directors than stars.
Getting a chance shouldn’t be a problem. But when that chance comes might be. According to the NBA Draft web site draftexpress.com, which constantly monitors player movement and mock drafts, Collins isn’t even on the board for the 2009 Draft. That’s a good sign for KU fans. An even better sign is that, according to draftexpress.com, he’s not even a first-rounder after his senior year.
As of March 9, 2008, draftexpress.com had Collins being selected with the seventh pick of the second round (No. 37 overall) in the 2010 NBA Draft.
With that positioning on the NBA radar screen, Collins would be crazy to even think about leaving after this season.
Of course, because of NCAA rules being what they are, he’d actually be crazy to not think about it.
Underclassmen are given two chances to throw their names into the NBA draft pool. Players are allowed to attend the summer camps and pre-draft workouts, talk with scouts and executives about where they stand and gather information about their stock. As long as they pull their name out of the draft by the deadline, they’re allowed to return to school to play out their remaining eligibility. Because Collins has not done this yet, he might as well do it after this season. It can’t hurt him to find out where he’s at and what he needs to work on.
Armed with that kind of knowledge, but also forced to face the reality that is life as a 5-11, 200-pound aspiring NBA point guard, Collins likely would return to KU for his senior season a better player. How is beyond me? But something tells me he’d find a way.
The real question I’m dying to find out the answer to is this: Why is North Carolina’s Ty Lawson — 6-foot, 195 pounds — considered far and away to be a better pro prospect than Collins?
Lawson is good. Real good. He’s great with the ball, faster than all get-out and has an incredible feel for the game. But he’s not near the scorer or shooter that Collins is and I’m not sure he’s as tough.
Somehow, though, he’s considered a lottery pick in this year’s draft.
Until the picks are made, it’s all speculation. But sometimes it just doesn’t make sense.
