June 29, 2005 | ESPN.com's NBA draft coverage
Now that the NBA draft is finished and the dust has settled, it's shocking to think about some of the early-entry players who left school only to go undrafted. Talk about Shock City, baby!
Who are these guys following? Who are they listening to? And where is the advice to leave college "because you're a lock first-rounder" coming from? Give me a break. These players should have been listening to their college coaches, the people who care the most about them. It's amazing to me that kids take advice from friends and individuals who don't know enough about player evaluation. College coaches know what pro teams look for, and they have NBA contacts with good information.
Despite that, the misplaced vision of grandeur is costly. When will these kids start listening to their coaches? They understand ability, but that isn't enough to sway some of these players back to the college ranks.
It breaks my heart to see kids like Randolph Morris, Anthony Roberson, Kennedy Winston, Kelenna Azubuike, Matt Walsh, Dwayne Jones, John Gilchrist, Shavlik Randolph and Sean Banks give up their college eligibility. Most of these guys could have come back and been stars in college next year, playing before packed arenas as Big Men On Campus. Oh, what could have been, baby! Instead of playing at tremendous schools in great environments for super coaches, they're now members of the Have Ball, Will Travel Team.
Morris and Azubuike gave up playing at Kentucky … are you kidding me? With the most passionate fans in the game, the tradition and history of the Big Blue at Rupp Arena, this was a bad decision. They could have become better basketball players and raised their stock for next year's draft.
What a shame it is that they're out of college basketball, undrafted, leaving their potential unfulfilled. The people who advised them to leave school owe a big-time apology to these two players.
Meanwhile, Roberson and Walsh could have been a special combo playing in front of the Rowdy Reptiles for coach Billy Donovan this coming season. Winston could have been a big star on the Crimson Tide campus.
Instead, they gave in to ego, ego, ego – and now these young men are paying the price. I said it a long time ago – go check out the archives, I said time and time again that with the depth of the draft, many kids were making mistakes leaving early. Few listened.
Every player wants to believe he'll be a late first-round selection, ensuring the guaranteed contract. Sorry, there were only 30 first-round slots, and now many of these college standouts were left hung out to dry in round two. It was truly a wake-up call for many.
It crushes me, because I love kids and love the game so much. You just have to wonder when some of these guys will listen to the right people. It has to be heartbreaking for these underclassmen to be told one thing and give up their college eligibility only to become basketball vagabonds.
I'm hearing that some players who didn't sign with an agent, like Morris and Jones, might be able to return to college if the NCAA allows them to repay any money they spent preparing for the draft. I hope the NCAA allows that, because it makes sense to let early-entry guys who didn't sign with an agent to return to school.
In the future, maybe some early-entry players will learn after seeing so many of the disappointed players miss out on this year's draft.
Dick Vitale coached the Detroit Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in 1979. Send a question to Vitale for possible use on ESPNEWS.
