In something of a surprise, UConn center Hasheem Thabeet announced he would be returning for his junior year."We are happy that Hasheem has made the decision to return for his junior season," said head coach Jim Calhoun. "Hasheem has made as much progress as any player I have coached in my 36 years and if he continues that incredible progress, he will help us take the next step as a team and help himself become one of the best players in college basketball."The major surprise isn't that Thabeet is coming back to UConn. He's still very raw despite the great progress he made this year. Even though he's thought about it the last two years, he hasn't pulled the trigger.
The bigger surprise is that he didn't even put his name on the draft list to at least test the waters. To go through the draft camps and some workouts for teams to see what they wanted to see from him seems like a smarter move. Especially when he was considered a late lottery pick.
For UConn, this is great news. If point guard A.J. Price makes a complete recovery from his ACL tear, the Huskies will return their entire starting 5 and along with Pitt be the favorites to win the Big East in 2008-09.
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