Posts tagged JerrydBayless at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Arizona sophomore forward Chase Budinger will enter the NBA Draft. He will "test the waters" and not hire an agent ... opening the door for him to return to the Wildcats.

"I don't disagree with him doing that," Arizona coach Lute Olson told FOXSports.com. "Some guys can really benefit from the experience and gather a better understanding of what they need to do and I think that'll be the case."

"I think he could be a high lottery pick in next year's draft," Olson added. "The way we're going to play, it could happen."

This really sounds like Budinger will be back at Zona next year if he isn't projected to go very high. One of the nice things about "testing the waters" is that you can get some instruction on how your game may translate to the next level and what a player may need to work on to increase his stock.

Many draft sites see Budinger as a mid-first round pick.

Arizona freshman Jerryd Bayless has already declared for the draft.

Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless, who led the Wildcats in scoring and made several All-American teams, will declare for the NBA Draft. The likely high-lottery pick has hired an agent and will therefore lose his remaining three years of eligibility. Bayless leaves Tucson without having played for Lute Olson, the coach who recruited him to Point Guard U.

This isn't too much of a surprise for anyone who watched Bayless this season. He's able to get into the paint at will, has one of the best pull-up jumpers in the nation, and has the skills to excel at point guard at the next level. Both DraftExpress.com and NBADraft.net have him as a Top 5 pick, and it's hard to believe that his workouts would drop him much lower than that.

The Wildcats will obviously miss Bayless's presence in Tucson, but the arrival of freshman point guard (and flat-top enthusiast) Brandon Jennings should offset some of the damage. The real issue here will come if Bayless's decision opens the floodgates in Arizona. Both Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill would go in the first round of the draft, so it's possible that they would declare before the deadline. Those three players carried Arizona this season and would be sorely missed. If Budinger and Hill return, then the Wildcats should be one of the best teams in the Pac-10 next year.

Conference: Pac-10
Record: 18-14, 9-11 Pac-10
RPI: 40
How They Got In: At-Large Bid
Seed/Bracket: #10 in the West

Mascot: Wildcats. The name caught on in 1914 when a Los Angeles Times article stated that the team "showed the fight of Wildcats" in a football game against Occidental College.

Big Wins: Texas A&M, at USC, Washington State (home/away)

Notable Losses: at Kansas, at Memphis, Arizona State (home/away), Oregon (home/away)

Player You Should Know: Jerryd Bayless is one of the most dynamic guards in the country and a sure-fire lottery pick in June's NBA Draft. He's fantastic off the dribble and has one of the best pull-up jumpers in the game. Some people are surprised that the Wildcats got into the tournament, but it'll be worth it just to see Bayless on the game's biggest stage.

Outlook: Arizona lost both games to Arizona State this season, but this team legitimately deserves to be in the field. They had some horrible injury luck with both Bayless and Nic Wise going down for significant stretches of the season. Having the highest strength of schedule in the country doesn't hurt either. The Wildcats look very impressive at full strength and can be a handful when their stars are at their best. Arizona's not tremendously deep, but they have enough talent to win in the first round and give someone a serious scare in Round Two.

The Pac-10 announced its season awards today and, unsurprisingly, UCLA was the big winner. The Bruins picked up the hardware for Player of the Year (Kevin Love), Freshman of the Year (Love again), and Defensive Player of the Year (Russell Westbrook). The only trophy that failed to go to Westwood was Coach of the Year, which was won by Stanford's Trent Johnson. The Bruins also placed three people on the Pac-10's three All-Conference teams.

It's hard to argue with any of these choices. Love was pretty clearly the most consistent offensive player in the league this season, although his defense is not up to the level of likely runner-up Brook Lopez. Regardless, Love was a deserving winner of both his awards. Westbrook's win is a little easier to question, but he's certainly one of the two or three best wing defenders in the conference (although I prefer Washington State's Kyle Weaver), and Stanford center Robin Lopez's blocked shot totals probably weren't high enough to give him the trophy. As for Coach of the Year, that one's always emphasizes performance relative to expectations, so it's not surprising that the admittedly deserving Johnson beat out Ben Howland.

The Pac-10 recently changed their All-Conference team from one 10-person group to three five-man teams, and that was probably a good decision given the conference's strength this season. The first team included Love, Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, OJ Mayo, and James Harden. I'm a little surprised that Jerryd Bayless didn't beat out Harden, but it's possible that the coaches wanted to honor Arizona State for their surprisingly solid season. Other than that, though, the rest of the All-Conference teams played to form.

UCLA tends to play games that involve big comebacks or extended runs, but Sunday's 68-66 road victory over Arizona was a tight affair the whole game. Both teams battled the entire game, but the Wildcats couldn't take advantage of several opportunities in crunch time.

The most glaring of these missed chances came on the last play, when Arizona got the inbounds to a wide open Kirk Walters about 10 feet from the basket. Walters easily could have stepped in for an uncontested jumper, but, well, he's Kirk Walters, so he passed to Jerryd Bayless for an off-balance prayer from the perimeter.

It's not too surprising that Walters didn't want to take that shot given that he's a little-used big man, but it's unlikely that Arizona was going to get a better shot than that. Honestly, the real blame for that play probably falls on Coach Kevin O'Neill, who should have made a sub as soon as he saw the ball go out of bounds on the previous play. This win likely would have clinched an NCAA berth for Arizona, so everyone involved with that team will have a lot to think about in the next few days.

UCLA was led by Kevin Love's 24 points and 15 rebounds. Love continually took advantage of some favorable calls in the post, making 10/11 foul shots. To a certain extent, he has earned those calls due to his considerable skills, but the fact remains that this might have been a very different game had Jordan Hill (18 points on 8/11 FG) not needed to sit with foul trouble for much of the second half.