Good luck Sean! Personally, I’d have taken money over sitting around doing nothing at a college I already graduated from any day so I don’t fault you one bit.

Wise was one of the all time winning-est players in Texas HS basketball history. He came to the UofA 20 pounds overweight and did not get much run as a freshman. Changed his diet and had success as a sophomore mostly backing up Jerryd Bayless when they were not on the court together, but he played in a make-shift system under interim head coach Kevin O’Neil who’s slow it down style did not lend itself to Wise’s skill set.
Started out his junior year by averaging 15 and 8 assists through his first 15 games, but then went down with a knee injury, had surgery and missed the middle of the Pac-10 season. He was a bit slow to return and took some time to get his legs under him, but came up big in the last 10 games of the season.

Next year he will be the unquestioned leader and the first PG at Point Guard University to run coach Miller’s offense. Expect him to come in hungry and to be the best, if not one of the top 3 point guards in the Pac 10.
He is very undersized at 5-9 (and that is generous, I have stood next to him many times), and he is not as quick as you might expect a smaller PG in major college basketball to be, but he has all of the intangibles and is a fearless competitor. Nic Wise can ball, that is for sure, but I think in the long run that his lack of speed will be the reason why he is not an NBA-level talent.

Since we’re on the subject of college players opting to stay in the draft or not, how about doing a story on Nic Wise’s decision to stay at Arizona for his senior year? It would be quite interesting.