Friday, April 4, 2008

Did anyone really NOT expect this?

The Indianapolis Star reported this morning that IU star Eric Gordon will enter the NBA draft. Their sources were unidentified, but the story indicated IU will distribute information about the upcoming announcement today.

Maybe I held out a little hope that Gordon would stick around for another year, if for no other reason because he fizzled toward the end of the season. The injury to his left hand really affected him, and by extension, the team.

I also thought Gordon had some issues he needed to work on that would make him a better pro. He really had a tendency to commit way too many turnovers. Many of them killed scoring bursts and some came when IU was trying to get back into a game. He averaged 3.6 turnovers a game, by far the worst on the team. That was more than 26 percent of the per game turnover average for the entire team.

But the scoring was impressive, at 20.9 points per game, including almost 34 percent from 3-point range. And the 83-percent free-throw shooting also helped down the stretch.

Gordon deserved first-team all Big Ten and freshman of the year honors. But I think if he took another year and dominated college basketball, his draft stock would rise even more. And who knows what Tom Crean could do with him back.

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