Gonzaga and Texas A&M both got bad news today, as Austin Daye will stay in the Draft, as will Chinemelu Elonu. I have to say that I was fairly surprised by both of these. Daye was very highly touted out of High School, but he really has never fulfilled his potential. He's been a quality player, but it constantly feels like he should be a lot better than he is. I don't see why he's suddenly going to take the leap after he hits the NBA. And as for Elonu, he's clearly a project. Why spend a year in the D-League if you can play another year in the NCAA building your stock?
Gonzaga was going to be favored in the WCC with or without Daye, but this will certainly drop them from the 8 seed I had them placed a month ago.
As for Texas A&M, I'm not sure yet how this will affect them. Elonu wasn't a huge scorer, and so with both Donald Sloan and Bryan Davis both dropping out of the Draft the Aggies will still have two of their three double-digit scorers back (graduating senior Josh Carter was the third). Elonu's presence was felt most on the boards (he led the team with 7.3 per game) and defending the paint (he led the team with 1.6 blocks per game). Davis will likely be the team's leading rebounder and shot-blocker next season (he was second to Elonu in both categories this past season), and will have to make the leap to becoming one of the real best post players in the Big 12 if Texas A&M is going to live up to their potential. I had projected the Aggies to finish third in the Big 12, with a five seed in the Tournament. That will drop with Elonu gone, but not too much.
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