The Big Ten Is The Big Winner At The NBA Draft Withdrawal Deadline

Luke Garza is confident there will be a college basketball season of some sort, but even if there isn’t he’s confident he made the right decision to return to Iowa for his senior season.

“At the end of the day I would regret it if I didn’t decide to come back,” the 6-foot-11 junior forward from Iowa said Sunday in announcing he was withdrawing from the NBA Draft to return to the Big Ten school for one more season.

Even though Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said he’s “certain there will be a college basketball season and an NCAA Tournament,” no one can be certain of anything during this pandemic.

But if there is a season, the Big Ten is the big winner for the time being.

In the days leading up to Monday’s NBA withdrawal deadline for the NCAA, Iowa’s Garza, Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn, Michigan State’s Aaron Henry and Minnesota’s Marcus Carr all opted to withdraw from the draft and return to campus, giving the Big Ten a ton of star power for the 2020-21 season.

“My mind was made up before [they decided] but it’s great to see those guys come back and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun matching up against that team,” Garza said of Illinois. “They’re talented and obviously having those two guys back is going to help them a lot. I’m very excited for the Big Ten and it’s going to be really fun to be a part of it.”

Garza averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds last season and was named a consensus first-team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year. He figures to be the National Preseason Player of the Year heading into this season.

For Illinois, expectations are sky high, too. The 6-5 Dosunmu averaged 16.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists, while the 7-foot Cockburn averaged 13.3 points and 8.8 boards.

“I came back because I saw that we have the opportunity to do something big and ultimately win a national championship, especially with Ayo retuning that increased our chances,” Cockburn told ZAGSBLOG. “I’m just ready to keep working on my game and getting better and take it step-by-step.”

Michigan State, meantime, loses junior forward Xavier Tillman to the draft (and senior point guard Cassius Winston), but returns the 6-6 Henry after he averaged 10.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

Carr, a sophomore guard at Minnesota, averaged 15.4 points, 6.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds last season.

Of this group, Cockburn and Carr were not invited to the NBA Combine, while Garza, Dosunmu and Henry were.

Not receiving an invitation to the Combine is usually a pretty indication for underclassmen that they should return to campus and are not perceived as NBA ready. Still, being invited to the Combine isn’t a guarantee of being drafted, either.

None of these five players were projected to be drafted according to ESPN.com’s latest mock draft from April.

After another year on campus, they all have the chance to boost their stock.

McCaffery said Luka is “betting on himself.”

“He will come back, help our team do something special and then it becomes a situation where there’s never a question that he’s going to be drafted in the first round,” the coach said.

Several players from other leagues also made the decision to withdraw from the draft over the weekend, including Seton Hall senior forward Sandro Mamukelashvili, Gonzaga sophomore guard Joel Ayayi and incoming Howard forward Makur Maker, who made news last month when he chose HBCU Howard over Kentucky, Memphis and Oregon.

Still, it is the Big Ten that is the big winner overall, with McCaffery suggesting the league could put 11 or 12 teams into the NCAA Tournament in March — assuming there is one.

“You look at the teams [in the Big Ten] top to bottom, everybody’s going to be good,” McCaffery said. “We will have at least 10 [teams in the NCAA Tournament], maybe more this year, and I think that’s what you sign up for, that’s what the challenge is.”

McCaffery isn’t quite sure how the college season, will look and floated the idea of a “bubble-type” situation for college teams between Thanksgiving and late January when other students won’t be on campus.

“We have an opportunity from Thanksgiving through the start of the second semester to maybe do a bubble-type event, maybe that’s something we do,” he said. “But these conversations are ongoing. Obviously everything’s on the table with regard to the NCAA Tournament moving back. That was discussed last year. But there was just too much uncertainty.

“I’m certain there will be a college basketball season and an NCAA Tournament. It may not look like it has looked in the past but I feel pretty confident that it’s going to happen.”

And if it does, the Big Ten could be the big winner.

This post was updated with the Marcus Carr decision.