North Carolina fans celebrated on Wednesday when James Michael McAdoo announced that he would be returning for his sophomore season. He’s a potential all-american and a guy that just about everyone is going to predict to have a Thomas Robinson-esque kind of break out performance.
Murray State fans celebrated as well when all-american point guard Isaiah Canaan made it official that he would be back as a Racer for his senior campaign.
Myck Kabongo has said he’s returning to Texas, Doug McDermott has announced his intention to return to Creighton and Mike Moser will be back at UNLV for at least one more year.
That’s all well and good and I’m sure that each and every one of those fan bases are excited about the fact that one of their stars has said they will be returning. And while I hate to be the buzzkill, nothing is actually official. It won’t be on April 10th, the NCAA’s deadline for players considering the draft to pull their names, either.
You see, the way the NCAA has set up this new rule is beyond silly. They moved the deadline to withdraw from the draft up to April 10th in an effort to try and give head coaches more of a feel for what their roster will look like in the next season, but the problem is that the deadline holds absolutely no weight. If a player wants to leave, he has until April 29th -- the NBA’s deadline for early entry -- to declare. Because if he is going to the NBA, where is the incentive to follow any rules that the NCAA has put into place?
This is where it gets interesting.
Nothing that any of these players have announced is official. Nothing that any of the players that “withdraw” their name from the draft over the next five days will be official. In fact, this is something these kids have to do if they want more time to make the most important decision of their lives, time they actually should be allowed to get.
In essence, the NCAA has created a situation where is behooves the athletes to lie about their intentions. That’s always good.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.