Chase Budinger to stay at UofA
Chase Budinger has pulled his name from the NBA draft and will return to the University of Arizona for his junior season.
The announcement, made right before the NBA’s 2PM deadline for early entries, came as a bit of a surprise. Budinger was projected in the top 20 picks when he announced his eligibility for the draft. He was expected to remain in the draft if his status didn’t drop.
The decision certainly helps a depleted UofA program, who faced losing both Budinger and point guard Jayrd Bayless to the draft. Even with Budinger returning the Wildcats are still short-handed. Currently only 10 players are under scholarship with incoming freshman Brandon Jennings facing possible eligibility issues.
Budinger’s decision may have been influenced by his head coach Lute Olson. Olson had some candid comments about Budinger’s NBA opportunity.
“I personally think it would be ridiculous for him to go out somewhere around 20 or 21, when a year from now he could be in the top six.
“Sometimes, guys don’t think of the marketing end of it. But you don’t get picked around 20 and have any marketing opportunities.
“(UA freshman) Jerryd (Bayless), coming out as the fourth or fifth pick . . . adidas and Nike are both after him hard right now. He’s going to make a lot of money in marketing. But that’s not available to Chase, whereas next year it would be.”
It will be interesting to see if another year under the tutelage of Olson will help Budinger’s draft positioning or help him earn those elusive marketing dollars.
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Posted by Greg Esposito
Co-founder of AzSportsHub.com. Greg provides the sometimes serious, sometimes sarcastic and always interesting takes on Arizona sports (at least we hope). Whether it’s on In The Zona with Matt or in his column Greg reports, rants and raves about whatever is in the news for Arizona Sports.
http://www.azsportshub.com/author/espo
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