....the NBA establishes an age limit of 21, just to spite Jermaine O'Neal and others who complained at the suggested limit of 20. The result is several college players will be forced to rescind their NBA intentions and return to school, including Andrew Bogut, Chris Paul, as well as the entire North Carolina Tarheel team. Okay, wiping the drool and waking up....
Bogut grabs the biggest individual prize, the John Wooden award (below) and looks forward to professional basketball.
(Photo by Reed Saxon, Associated Press)
So Bogut is gone, now what?
Well this week in addition to the open lockers left my Andrew Bogut and Marc Jackson, the Utes also announced that starting forward Justin Hawkins was leaving the team. No official statement as to the reason for the departure was given, however its being bantered around that there were a variety of internal conflicts and disagreements, including some rumors of involvement from Papa Hawkins. While it hasn't been said, one can only surmise that someone must have been unhappy about their role in the offense. If he was unhappy being a role player to Bogut and company during the season, to his credit he didn't say a peep to the press.
(Photo by August Miller,Deseret News)
Why would Hawk want to leave? Perhaps he was told to go home and work on free throws (only 58% this year), outside shooting (zero 3 pointers), and conditioning, as the Utes will feature more pressing and up-tempo style next season. There might have been something in there somewhere that he didn't like. Giving in to the urge to comment on rumored reasons of one's unhappiness, I have to say the loss of Hawkins will hurt most in the toughness category, but that his offensive numbers can be made up elsewhere. You can't bag on Hawk though, he brought effort every game and was a team player. Hopefully he lands on his feet somewhere and gets a chance to continue his development. My fear is that, he won't be as successful in the starring role, as he was operating as a role player receiving the help of Bogut and Jackson.
For good measure, and as long as the revolving doors were still spinning...Out went backup guard Jermaine Calvin and backup forward Jake Schmidt. While Calvin had quickness, his 5'9 size and lack of a reliable outside shot probably meant limited contributions from him in the near future. Schmidt was an easy decision, as didn't score in only 14 minutes of game time during his freshman year.
The combination of losing those three starters at once leaves a huge hole and would seem to signal that next season's Utes will be making a giant U-Turn from the good fortune and success they experienced this year. However, the conversation around the U is hardly one that would indicate the sky is falling. Instead, the Utes are announcing some strong incoming players and at least floating the words of "depth" and "potential" as coach Ray Giacolletti hopes to get the deep up-tempo team he desires.
We'll focus more on the newcomers later, but in a brief summary I offer some quick mumbles..
- - Misha Radojevic, a 6-10" low post player from Serbia, comes in with two years of eligibility and is described a "tough kid" by Ray Giacoletti.
- - Luke Nevill, a 7'0" redshirt freshman from Australia looks to continue the Aussie dominance of the center position for the Utes. Andrew Bogut even said that Nevill "has a lot more potential than I had at that age..".
- - Shaun Green, a 6'8" forward from Salt Lake City who is one of the top Utah recruits of the year.
- - Johnnie Bryant, a transfer point guard, and Ricky Johns, a shooting guard fill out the list of incoming players.
For now, Ute fans will keep their focus on the NBA draft. I recommend CollegeHoopsNet.com as a great resource on both college basketball as well as the upcoming draft. As of this moment, the good folks at CHN have Andrew Bogut and Chris Paul as their 5 STAR draft prospects. Check it out!
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