Kansas guards Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun are going to be playing in the NBA next season, having been two of the 58 players selected in the NBA draft last month. Agbaji was drafted at No.14 by the Cleveland Cavaliers while the Denver Nuggets took Braun at No.21.
Jalen Wilson, though, will be staying at Kansas. The player opted to withdraw his name from the draft and return to college. He has discussed his reasoning, revealing it wasn’t an easy choice, and labored on his mind as the deadline approached.
“Probably like the week before I was really leaning towards going,” he said, per 24/7 Sports. “And I just kind of had a thought to myself at night, like what is best for me? Obviously, the NBA is my dream and goal. But I think what was best for me was coming back and just reestablishing a lot of different things.”
Wilson made a good impression at the G League Elite Camp and would earn an invite to the NBA Draft Combine. He claims to have met with just about every NBA team and had in-person workouts with the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks on two occasions.
“I was leaning NBA, just going from a good combine, my G League was really good,” he continued. “And I thought that was gonna be able to carry it on. But I figured that being able to come back and be a good leader and stuff like that and have a good year like we did last year would kind of help me. Maybe I don’t have to go to the G League combine first and go straight to the combine and go from there.”
The 21-year-old wasn’t invited to the Combine after helping fire to National Championship glory and had to go by way of the G League Elite Camp.
He measured 6ft 7.25in with shoes on and recorded a 6ft 8.25 in wingspan, weighing in at 225.2 lbs with 7.3 percent body fat. He hit seven of his 11 attempts from long range and averaged 15.5 points per game in two scrimmages assisting five scores and snatching nine rebounds.
He shot 6-for-21 in two Combine scrimmages, shooting 1-for-7 from beyond the arc and failing to match his efficiency at the previous camp. He had four assists and six rebounds in the two outings.
“I’m so used to adversity, as you have seen throughout these last three years,” he said in reference to his earning an invite to the NBA Draft Combine. “Nothing’ has really just been handed to me. I knew that I was going to have to go and earn that. Even with winning the championship, I knew that I was still going to be overlooked. And I felt like the best thing for me was getting out to showcase how hard I’ve been working on my shooting, stuff like that. I feel like I played well there.”
He has since opted to return for a season as a redshirt junior following his contributions to the team’s successful campaign. The Jayhawks are 13/1 to win next year and, with the Kansas Sports Betting bill now written into law, there will be quite a lot of activity on the punting front therein.
Wilson didn’t get off to a great start last season because of an off-court issue. He served a three-game suspension at the beginning of the term because of a DUI charge and came off the bench for nine of the first 10 games of the season. However, he rose to the occasion once Big 12 play started, averaging close to 13 points per game, as well as 8 rebounds between the beginning of conference action and the end of the campaign.
He ended the season averaging 11.1 points per game on 46.1 percent shooting from the field, leading the team in rebounds with 7.4 per contest, adding 1.8 assists and 0.9 steals per game.
He’s now looking to have a consistent year of good basketball.
“I think, personally, with the way the year went, it was obviously the greatest year I could ask for, but I just really just want a complete year of good basketball and stuff like that,” he remarked. “And I feel like me starting off the year so slow last year kind of hindered some things. So just being able to get off to a good start and have a full season is what I really want for myself.”
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