Recent highly touted guards who've opted to stay in school

[pearl31]

Trey Burke, Marcus Smart, Gary Harris… I'm sure there are some others I'm forgetting.

The question for the NBA gurus on here saying Ennis has to go now - how/why did these guys stay?

EDIT to clarify: "highly touted" meaning a player that is projected to be upper half of first round of NBA draft

 

[orangefan13]

Got to look at the pieces around you.

Ennis has Kaleb Joseph Cooney next to him, and could have jerami grant back, on top of christmas, dajuan and Chris Mccullough we will be taller at forward.
Not to mention gbinije bj, roberson, and Patterson should be ready to make a jump.

 

[Full_Rebar]

Other than Smart, I don't recall the other guys mentioned as being listed as Top 10 picks before they decided to return. Smart had an outside shot at being the #1 pick last year (Cavs were looking at him and Dion had some decent trade value), and most likely would have gone #2 to Orlando if he left. No idea why he decided to return to school, but it's obviously going to cost him this year. Maybe he ends up in a better place this year, but he's most likely outside the top 5 right now.

You might not like Chad Ford, but he gets a lot of good inside info to put together his Big Board, so if he keeps Ennis in the top 10 at the end of the tourney it means that NBA teams in the lottery like Ennis.

 

[pearl31]

I know for sure that Burke was way up there (lottery range) by the end of his frosh season, and G.Harris definitely would have been a near lotto pick last year…
Point being, if this is such a no-brain decision for Ennis, how on earth did those guys come back?

 

[Syracuse44]

It all comes down to this. Do you want to stay in school, have many other responsibilities that come with being a student, and play for free? Or do you take your lottery grade, get drafted, have all focus in your life going towards basketball (Your career), and make guaranteed millions of dollars over a guaranteed 3 year contract?