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UConn’s Ater Majok will pull his name out of the NBA Draft before Monday’s 5 p.m. deadline, according to FoxSports.com.
“He’s going to pull his name out,” UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who is recovering from a bike accident that broke five ribs and caused him to be hospitalized, told FOXSports.com. “That’s what he told me [Saturday].”
Professional teams in Spain, Italy and Greece have shown interest in the 6-foot-10 Majok, a native of Sudan via Australia. But he is likely to return to UConn, according to his former coach, Ed Smith.
“Jim Calhoun is a proven developer of NBA talent,” Smith told the New Haven Register. “For him to go over there [to Europe] would have to be something on a par with the coach and system at UConn, something extraordinary like that.”
If Majok returns to campus, the Huskies will feature a lineup that includes Kemba Walker, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson and Majok.
Although they lose Jeff Adrien, A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet from last year’s Final Four team, they should still be talented enough to finish in the upper tier of the Big East and make the Big Dance.
UConn also adds two recruits from the Tilton (N.H.) School who should make an immediate impact, 6-7 wing Jamal Coombs-McDaniel and 6-9 center Alex Oriakhi.
“Oriakhi will start and I think by the end of the year Coombs will start, too,” said Chris Driscoll of the Boston Amateur Athletic Club, who coached both young men. “If you had a game to win today, Coombs is the guy you’d take of all of them. He had 42 points against South Kent when Tilton won the national Prep championship. He was the MVP of whole tournament.”
“Jim Calhoun is a proven developer of NBA talent,”
-Smith
Ummmm…..’Ol Jim is a lot of things, but I’d call him a “keeper of a gateway to the NBA ” before I’d call him a “developer”.
I have to disagree. As much as I hate UConn, Calhoun has been proven to develop raw talent. Just one example is Thabeet. I’m not going to say Thabeet is a legend of a player but he did win Big East Player of the Year and is projected to be drafted in the first 3 picks. He was terrible his freshman year and I didn’t predict this happening. I couldn’t stand to watch him.
I would hope Calhoun could develop players. He is a D1 basketball coach.
Why do you hate Uconn so much, what did they ever do to you?
Jayhawkfan11
Calhoun develops pretty good recruits into NBA players. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think UConn is either first or second with the number of active NBA players. That says something about his coaching abilities.
Gohard
I hate them because Marcus Williams stole my laptop.