NBA Draft Lookahead

Before we get to the meat of today's post I thought I'd pass along a couple of quick links of interest. The first is to announce that the son of Orlando Woolridge, Royce, has orally committed to Kansas for the 2010 season. I can honestly say that I know absolutely nothing about him except that he is listed at 6'2", is from Phoenix, Arizona and averaged 16 ppg this past season. One would like to think, though, that if Bill has already offered him, he must be pretty solid.

The news from the purple is that KSU AD, Bob Krause, is in negotiations with Ron Prince on a possible extension to his current contract. It should be noted that his current contract extends through the 2011 season and in his two seasons, Prince has led the Wildcats to a 12-13 overall record and he has yet to beat: Kansas, Methzou or Nebraska.

Yesterday, we linked to an article that highlighted the draft performance of ESPN experts Mel Kiper and Todd McShay. Hard to say if they saw this one coming?? In light of their sterling performance, we decided to craft an entire post about the upcoming NBA draft. Most of all, we are just interested in looking back and seeing just how futile these projections prove to be, but we will also make a point to look at each projection from a Jayhawk perspective as well.

Here's a look at the current projections provided by nbadraft.net. Depending on your feelings, it can be seen as either incredibly favorable or disheartening for Jayhawk fans. I say this because of how extremely well represented Kansas is with five players projected and all three early entrants going in the first round. I sure hope they're right about Kaun and Jackson.

Contrarily, this next site is not nearly as kind to the draft eligible Jayhawks. For one thing, the aforementioned Kaun and Jackson are not even represented on this list. And whereas the previous site had Arthur, Rush and Chalmers at 10, 24, & 26, respectively, this one places them at 21, 24 & 34 (2nd round). Though I obviously wish the best for him, I can't say I hate them having Chalmers in the 2nd round.

Similarly, this site caters to those hoping for Mario to return. Unfortunately, it doesn't list a second round projection, so it's hard to say what they think of Kaun or Jackson. It's also the only site I've seen that projects Rush (22) higher than Arthur (23), which I found…interesting.

This next one is a personal blog, rather than an accredited draft prediction site. And since Buzz Bissinger won't bother to give it a look, we will. On that note, this site offers the most favorable projection for the draft eligible Jayhawks. First off, it has DA going in the lottery (10) and Mario (24) going ahead of Brandon (25). Furthermore, not only does he have Kaun (52) and Jackson (58) going, but he has them higher than any other board I've seen.

This one comes courtesy of The Draft Review. And as far as Jayhawk fans are concerned, it's not too favorable. For starters, it has DA going in the lottery (12), with Brandon (21) and Mario (26) also going in the first round. That's all fine and good as we're all hoping for the best for those players. But if we have to deal with losing all of them, we can at least hope that Jackson and Kaun are selected as well. This site has neither being tapped. Then again, despite being updated after he announced he was staying, this site has Sam Young projected at # 45. And even worse than that, it has Leo Lyons at # 57, so how trustworthy can it really be? I mean, really, Leo "The Lion" Lyons?!

What does all of this mean? Probably a little less than nothing. As I mentioned earlier, we just know way too little at this point. According to Chad Ford, 51 underclassmen have declared. However, only 16 of them have signed with agents. Given that there are only 60 available spots and there will also be seniors and foreigners hoping to be selected, you'd like to think that number will dissipate at some point. Furthermore, the first round of the playoffs isn't even over and the lottery hasn't happened, so we're not all that close to determining an order. And lastly, half of the teams in the league aren't even thinking about the draft yet. With that said, take this for what you will, but I thought it was worth passing along.