No losing player in the NCAA Tournament wants to talk about the NBA Draft right after they go down in defeat.
It’s an awkward question for reporters to ask, yet everybody is curious what they might say.
In the cases of Kansas freshmen Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, both told reporters after losing to Stanford, 60-57, that they weren’t thinking about the draft at this point.
“It will be a tough decision,” the 7-foot Embiid, a projected top-3 pick, told Rustin Dodd of the Kansas-City Star.
Embiid, who hasn’t played since March 1 with a back injury and missed the first two games of the NCAA Tournament, said he will consult with his mentor, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute of the Minnesota Timberwolves as well as his family.
“I’m going to talk to my coaches, my mentor, my family,” Embiid told the Star.
Had Kansas advanced to meet Dayton in the Sweet 16, Embiid hoped to play.
“I’ve been doing my rehab, my exercises,” Embiid said. “If it were to me, I think I was going to play (next week).”
Wiggins, who managed just 4 points on 1-for-6 shooting in what is almost certainly his final college game, also was in no mood to talk about the future.
He said last fall that he planned to spend one year in college.
As the projected No. 1 pick in the draft, he stands to make $17.3 million over three years.
Yet after losing in his final college game, he felt he let his team down.
“I could have done a lot more,” he told reporters. “I’m one of the key pieces to this team. If I played differently and help my team … I let my team down.”
**For previous articles on Andrew Wiggins, click here.
