Jerel McNeal undeclares for the draft

Rosiak has the news.......Good decision by Jerel. Buzz Williams rejoices as expectations go way up for the '08-'09 Warriors.

Jerel McNeal and Tyshawn Taylor updates

For the second time in as many years, one of Marquette's best is dipping his toes in the NBA waters. Jerel McNeal put himself through a thorough self-evaluation before declaring, and he discussed that with Todd Rosiak in a blog posted over the weekend.

Still, despite an extraordinary finish to a strong junior season there's not much love for Jerel just yet:

• Andy Katz barely entertains the notion that McNeal will stay in the draft in his rundown on the impact of early entrants.
• ESPN.com's draft board lists McNeal at #73 overall -- out of 100 eligible draft entrants.
• NBADraft.net does not list McNeal in its mock two-round draft.
• Draftexpress.com lists McNeal as the 12th best shooting guard in the draft.

TYSHAWN TAYLOR TO KANSAS
Taylor visited Kansas last week, and came away impressed (um, no kidding). Today Adam Zagoria reports that Taylor committed to KU. No surprise.

McNeal declares for NBA draft, will not hire agent

To nobody's surprise, Jerel McNeal declared for the NBA draft on Friday but will not hire an agent.

GoMarquette official release

Rosiak's blog

Dominic James returns to Marquette

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that Dominic James is returning to play for Tom Crean and Marquette for his junior season.

MU is one over the scholarship limit as a result of this announcement. Look for that to rectified in the next few weeks.

Todd Rosiak's complete story from the Monday edition. UPDATE: More on this story from Rosiak's Blog.

Palladium-Item note on DJ's decision.

Quick AP blurb.

GoMarquette.com offers this report.

Rosiak reports

Rosiak's blog has a few updates, most notably this succinct assessment of Dominic James' NBA draft prospects:

Considering James hasn't yet hired an agent, turned in a subpar performance at the NBA pre-draft camp and has conducted just one abbreviated individual workout for an NBA team, all signs would seem to point to his returning to MU for his junior season.

We'll see if Todd's sound logic holds up in the coming days.

In reading Todd's recap, I was struck by the apparent distance that has emerged between Dominic and Tom Crean on the point guard's NBA dreams. There's nary a mention of Crean and James sitting down together to go over the results of the evaluation period. In fact, TC points out that they both spoke with the NBA's Stu Jackson ..... separately. That strikes me as odd, just as it did when TC was nowhere to be found when James announced his intention to test the waters. Crean is a coach who is constantly at the side of his players, counseling and supporting them through big-time decisions like this.

Other notes from Rosiak's blog:

• James will join Matthews and McNeal for the Pan Am Games tryouts later this month (assuming he smartly returns to school);
• Jerry Sichting's assistant coaching slot has not yet been filled;
• Crean will practice the team as a group a few times this summer in preparation for the exhibition trip to Canada in September.

Tick Tock, Mr. James

Dominic James has entered the final week of his NBA audition, and today will workout for the New York Knicks along with Ron Lewis, Trey Johnson and Taurean Green. James, who has until June 18 to make a final decision about his draft status, has struggled to positively differentiate his skills during this evaluation period, and was recently outplayed by fellow draft hopeful, PG Sean Singletary of UVa.

Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan recently used the word “unbelievable” to describe Singletary’s performance against several other draft-eligible players, including Marquette’s Dominic James.

Earlier reports indicated that James and Tom Crean could speak with the NBA's draft advisory committee as early as this Wednesday to understand where the MU point guard stacks up against his draft-eligible peers. A decision on whether or not to remain in the draft could come soon after this review. James has indicated that a second-round guarantee would be enough to convince him to leave school.

The Knicks are an interesting team for DJ to work out for. The Knickerbockers do not have a second round pick this year, but as The Knicks Fix points out:

As you all know by now, Isiah Thomas feels he can take a chance with his No. 23 pick because he feels he already made one first-round selection by signing Randolph Morris right out of Kentucky. Go further with that thinking and you figure with Morris, who is 6-9 and projected to be a power forward, Thomas got his big. You might think he'd go with a guard, then, with the next choice.

Selecting (Taurean) Green would be the kind of move that would fit in the Knicks' plans. He's not someone who would have to play right away. In fact, he might not get much burn at all for two full seasons. But consider that Stephon Marbury's contract expires in two years, as does the contract of Steve Francis (if it remins on the books)

James worked out with Green today in front of the Knicks brass -- and while Green has elevated his stock in the last month, I guess DJ can hold out hope that one never knows with Isiah Thomas. Heck, nobody saw Renaldo Balkman as a first-rounder last season.

Dominic James and the NBA

After an up and down performance at the NBA pre-draft camp last week, Dominic James will begin individual workouts for NBA teams soon. Considering the mediocre reviews at the camp last week (there were no glowing accounts of his play when all was said and done) it seems that James is a long-shot to be drafted at this juncture, but ESPN's Chad Ford is not sure being drafted will prevent DJ from going pro:

Several underclassmen may have hurt their chances of being drafted. Marquette's Dominic James, Fresno State's Dominic McGuire, Texas A&M's Joseph Jones, Virginia's Sean Singletary, Nevada's Marcelus Kemp, and Clemson's James Mays need to return to school. They didn't play well enough to warrant a first-round selection, and even a second-round selection is questionable for some of them.

That may be a problem for James and McGuire, who are rumored to be unwilling to return to school.

Maybe Dominic is hell-bent on moving on to professional basketball, even if Europe is his final destination. Regardless, James is smartly indicating that he's 'all-in' for now - - you don't chase your dreams halfway.

Dominic James bounces back

Dominic James turned things around a bit last night at the NBA pre-draft camp. His performance was an improvement over Wednesday's effort, but in the eyes of draftexpress it's still not enough to warrant staying in the draft:

Although he certainly played a lot better than yesterday, Dominic James’ second day performance definitely left a lot to be desired for a player who seems to be adamant about keeping his name in the draft. He overdribbled badly on numerous possessions, driving into brick walls with his head down and showing an inability to read defenses and react based off what was thrown at him.......At this point, there is a legit possibility that James doesn’t even get drafted.

Hoopsworld.com begs to differ - -naming James as one of the ten players from the Orlando pre-draft camp who will be selected in the upcoming draft:

He's an amazing athlete, the best at the point guard position in Orlando. In fact, he told me on Wednesday his vertical leap has been measured at over 40 inches on more than one occasion. He's not 100% NBA ready right now, but he's the type of athlete who draws the attention of scouts. Remember how the stock of Gulliermo Diaz -- draft by the Clippers in 2006-- rose last season because of his athleticism? Expect the same thing to happen with James.

CSTV spends time evaluating draft options for James and Ramon Sessions against the backdrop of a weak PG class in the draft:

(James is) using this camp as a barometer to see if he's better off heading to the pros now.

"Most definitely, just from the feedback I'm gonna be getting back from my coaches and the people I have within my circle," James said. "They're talking to the decision makers in the league and just getting a report back from things I need to get better at. It's a win-win situation for me. I feel like if I go back to college, I'm gonna be a lot better player. And most definitely if I make it to the NBA, it'll be a dream come true."

Here's a thread from MarquetteHoops that chronicled DJs' performance in the late game on Thursday.

Dominic James struggles in Orlando

Things are not going well for DJ in the Magic Kingdom. The most savage review of his play can be found on NBADraft.net which, despite the ridiculous fiction about Tom Crean's alleged wanderlust (a mind-blowing piece of lousy reporting, frankly), is in-line with what other three other draft observers are saying about DJ's performance:

"Dominic James appears to be the player that made the biggest mistake playing here. His stock is plummeting and it could have a lingering effect on next year as well, should he return to Marquette. James decided to enter the draft when it appeared coach Tom Crean might be leaving for greener pastures. After it became apparent that wasn't happening, James decided to continue to "explore his draft options". Big mistake. James first game in the camp he went scoreless on 0-3 shooting with 0 assists. Even worse than the terrible game, his inability to run a team has been exposed."

Wait, there's more. Here's the day two assessment from DraftExpress:

"...going up against players like Aaron Brooks, James looked very non-descript as an athlete, and almost tentative in the way he approached the game.

James rarely looked to score in this one, but his lack of size was apparent whenever he did. Given his shooting struggles and continuing tendency to waste precious of the shot clock by hanging onto the ball, these just aren’t good signs coming from a prospect that was thought of as a potential lottery pick at the beginning of the season."

This account of last night's game from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer seems to validate James' ineffectiveness against Aaron Brooks, who is a second-round pick at best.

ESPN's Chad Ford is more to the point about Dominic's performance, "he was the only player here to do virtually nothing in the game. If that's not the signal he needs to go back to Marquette, I don't know what is." FWIW, James' line from last night's game was 0 points, 2 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 steal, 0-3 fg’s, 0-2 ft’s.

Not to be outdone, STATS via CNNSI jumped into the mix - - rather diplomatically:

James has shown good quickness and driving ability, and has done a solid job trying to get teammates involved. But playing in the same backcourt with Cook in Wednesday night's final game, James went scoreless as he missed three shots from the field and he failed to record an assist.

"This is an important step for me as far as the camp goes," said James, who averaged 14.9 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore. "I really wanna come out here and perform well just so they can see I can run a team in a different manner than what I did in college because it's different personnel and it's a different style game when you get into the NBA."

It wasn't a style many players grasped Wednesday night."

If you are keeping score at home, that's an 0-4 night for DJ. In baseball, they refer to a performance like this as the Golden Sombrero. James will have a shot at redemption tonight when Team#3 takes the court at 6:30pm.

The guys at MU Scoop are talking about Dominic James' struggles early at the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando here.

James: "I'm just looking for a guarantee"

Who needs a first round guarantee? According to CNNSI's Luke Winn, not Dominic James:

The chatter amongst NBA folks is that James wants to stay in the draft; and according to him, it may not require a first-round guarantee to make it happen. James said he would strongly consider something akin to what former Texas guard Daniel Gibson received last season, which was an assurance from Cleveland that he would not slip past its pick in the second round, and then a guaranteed two-year deal once he was selected in that spot. "I'm just looking for a guarantee, that's all," said James.

Is it just me, or does it seem that DJ desperately wants to close the book on his college career? Of course, DJ doesn't want to become the next Chris "The Polka King" Thomas either. Regardless, good luck this week in Orlando, DJ.

Still, with MU's own Travis Diener and Steve Novak signing guaranteed multi-year contracts based on second round draft slots - - James' logic is sound. Somewhat risky, but sound. Consider that players like Carlos Boozer, Michael Redd and even Jim McIlvaine benefited greatly by being second round picks. As second rounders, these players became free agents more quickly where they each cashed-in big time rather than being locked up with a deal that would have paid them less than the average annual value of their second contracts.

(FWIW, Daniel Gibson signed a two-year guaranteed deal with the Cavs worth $412,748 in this season and $687,456 in 07-08.)

Chad Ford breaks down Dominic James

The NBA pre-draft camp began yesterday in Orlando, and ESPN.com's Chad Ford listed Dominic James as one of the key entrants that GM's will be watching closely:

Dominic James, PG, Marquette

James was left off the roster until the last minute despite the fact that many NBA scouts had him ranked as a late first-rounder for much of the year.

He hit a horrific shooting slump in the second half of the season and watched his stock drop. But he's got the speed, strength and explosiveness to be a NBA player. He'll need to show more floor leadership and the ability to knock down jumpers here if he wants to get back into the first round.

By Ford's best guesstimate, 42 of his top 60 potential draft picks are not participating in this week's pre-draft camp...."that would leave only 18 draft spots for the 62 players here."

IMHO, things are breaking right for Dominic James at this camp. He was called in late - so you'd expect him to be hungrier than most. In addition, as Ford points out the talent level at the camp is sub-par which should provide James with an opportunty to shine against PG prospects like Taurean Green, Mustafa Shakur, and Jared Jordan - - - none of whom figure to be able to keep up with DJ' freakish athleticism, if not overall game.

At the pre-draft camp, you can find Dominic James on Team#3 where his teammates are:

• Winthrop's Craig Bradshaw
• OSU's Daequan Cook
• ORU's Caleb Green
• Maryland's Ekene Ibekwe
• Texas A&M's Joseph Jones
• OSU's Ron Lewis
• KSU's Cartier Martin
• Loyola's Blake Schilb
• Wright State's Dashaun Wood (MVP of the Portsmouth Invitational)
  

This seems like a good mix for James. Wood is the only other PG on the squad - - and both Lewis and Cook are terrific outside shooters, which should help showcase James' passing abilities (not to mention his ability to take a defender off the dribble).

Some reports indicate that ESPNU will televise certain portions of the NBA pre-draft camp this week - -we'll post a schedule here if we can track one down.

DraftExpress has an assessement of Day One of the camp here - - no mention of DJ.

James gets invite to Orlando -- is his departure imminent?

Dominic James will now participate in the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando which starts on Tuesday. James was extended an invitation per Todd Rosiak (who also notes that Iman Shumpert took an unofficial visit to MU today).

What does this mean for DJ's basketball future? If you believe the Jonathan Givony at DraftExpress -- James' departure is a 'foregone conclusion'.

We shall see - - to put it kindly, Givony is not the most credible reporter on NBA draft-related issues.

In a related item, Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman rates James as the 6th best point guard prospect in the current draft pool.

DJ not invited to Orlando Camp

An "unofficial" list was released yesterday of the 60 NBA hopefuls that were invited to the Orlando Pre-Draft camp.

Marquette's Dominic James was not on that list of 60, but was one of three the "alternates."

That's pretty surprising. One would figure out of 60 guys, there's at least a dozen PGs. How DJ isn't one of the top 60 potential draftees, nor one of the top dozen PGs is interesting. This would solidify the idea that James isn't going to be a 1st round pick, for sure.

Additionally, the theory was that DJ wanted to test the waters and hope to "blow up" at the pre-draft camp to see if/where he'd be drafted. Yesterday's news would indicate the greater likelihood that he'll be back wearing #1 for the Warriors next season.

Andy Katz' blog has this:

Marquette sophomore guard Dominic James is an alternate for the Orlando pre-draft camp next week but that's not forcing him to withdraw from the NBA draft -- yet.

Marquette coach Tom Crean said that James has at least four workouts with NBA teams from June 6-18. Crean said he advised James that if he were going to test the draft process, then he had to maximize every day.

There is still a chance that James could be added to the Orlando camp roster, considering there are usually a number of players who are pulled by their representation as the week gets closer.

Dominic James Update

Dominic James has more than a month to make a decision about his basketball future, and early indications are he'll need all of that time to evaluate his options. According to today's Indianapolis Star, James remains a 'bubble player' who could be selected in either the late first or early second rounds of the upcoming NBA draft.

With help from Tom Crean, the NBA's draft advisory committee - - a small group of talent evaluators who assess the draftability of declared underclassmen -- is providing James with candid feedback on his value:

Crean values the committee as an independent, objective source of information. He used it in 2003 to get feedback on behalf of Dwyane Wade, who was taken fifth by Miami after his junior season. So far, however, the committee is less positive regarding James' status.......

......."In the case of Dominic it wasn't like he got great news that made it a no-brainer, but we've heard enough other things to be able to say there's an opportunity and an option. Now he has to do as much as he possibly can with it."

After completing finals next week, James will turn his attention to an aggressive workout schedule to prepare for the NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando on June 4-8. Following the camp, the advisory committee will provide an updated assessment of James' draft prospects (on or about June 13).

Per the quote below, James sounds hungry -- but as a fan I have to ask, how and why did you lose your edge in the first place?

"I'm going to constantly be in the gym," he said. "Last year I came in with a chip on my shoulder. I got a lot of praise and kind of lost that chip. I've got that chip back."

I guess there might have been truth to the buzz on the message boards (largely from gr8one/Murff, who was ripped for this assertion throughout the season) that James had at least one eye on the NBA for most of his sophomore campaign.

If that chip on his shoulder had been present for the duration 2006-2007 season, James might have had much less to prove in Orlando next month.


UPDATED

• John Keegan, fresh off a year of reporting for the Marquette Tribune and now writing for OnMilwaukee.com, jumps in with an excellent analysis of James' draft prospects --- and makes the case that DJ should return for his junior season.

Dominic James declares for NBA draft

.......and he will not hire an agent. No surprise. As we reported on April 7th, this was the rumor all along.

The university put out an official press release this afternoon.


You can listen to the Press Conference from the Journal Sentinel site here.

Crean discusses James

Courtesy of Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline Tom Crean discusses his point of view on Dominic James' pursuit of his NBA dream:

"But you have to let people chase their dreams," Crean said. "I know a guy at a program that we compete against who worked so diligently to hold one of his players back that -- and this player ended up being a lottery pick -- he didn't even meet the player's agent until the night of the draft. I don't think that's right, and I don't ever want that to be me. You have to give your players a chance to chase their dreams. If not, you're not building your program the right way or doing the right thing.

I wonder who Coach Crean is talking about? Hmmm....

Rosiak: DJ, Staff Changes, Scheduling

UPDATED

In the Tuesday editions of the MJS, Todd Rosiak filed this article about Dominic James' likely decision to test the NBA waters sans an agent.

But wait, there's more......Todd Rosiak also had another great blog entry on Monday night.

• As has been reported, Dominic James is still floating his name for the NBA draft, but not hire an agent. This would mean he has until 10 days before the June 28th draft to withdraw his name and stay a Warrior. (From Homer's show .. DJ will be back next year; DJ knows he's not a 1st rounder, and wants to go to Orlando to learn what scouts say he needs to work on.)
  
• Todd Townsend has taken a job at Northeastern. Video guy Derek Deprey has accepted a position as director of player development at Utah.
• Rosiak has some chatter from Crean on scheduling. Here's something to make you dream sugarplumbs tonight:

Crean said there's a chance MU would try to schedule a home-and-home with a team from a major conference such as the Pac-10.

Read the entire blog here.

Dominic James: no NBA decision yet

"The people that are close to me know I'm still weighing all my options," he said. "I'm just getting everybody's analysis of my game, what they think my draft status is and things like that. But as far as making a decision, I haven't gotten there yet."

So says Dominic James in an article today by Todd Rosiak. The article -- and accompanying Q/A with DJ on Rosiak's blog (btw, love the line about being 'hood rich')- appears to be based solely on an interview with James, so in that regard we know exactly where DJ personally stands with the process.

These reports prove that James is a smart, heady kid who will make a good decision. If nothing else, he's pushing his coach to help with research, and calmly reviewing the incoming feedback. Good for him. DJ is waiting to hear those magic words, first. round. pick.

If I hear, ‘OK, Dominic, you’re a first-round pick. We feel like either way it goes, you’re going to be selected in the first round.’ Then I’d probably think about that very hard because if they tell you you’re a first-round pick and your stock is high, then you’ve almost got to go.

Good luck with that -- but don't forget what happened to a guy like Maurice Evans who was promised that he'd be a first-round pick, only to find out that not all promises are kept. Still, it is encouraging to know that James is taking his time to make a smart, informed decision (unlike other over-anxious players in the Big East) .


Editor's mea culpa: NBA personnel are not allowed to comment on draft ineligible players (read: underclassman) until after the April 29 declaration deadline. My earlier post wrongly assumed that Rosiak could have obtained on-the-record comments at this time.

Thanks to a faithful reader for pointing this out!

When will Dominic James declare for the NBA draft?

Tick tock, tick tock. Will Dominic James test the NBA waters this month?

Marquette's point guard has until April 29 to declare for the NBA draft and can withdraw his name from the pool as late as June 21. In a draft nearly devoid of senior point guards pegged as possible first round prospects (Acie Law IV, Sean Singletary, Aaron Brooks are the exceptions), exploring NBA options seems like a smart decision for James. It would also make sense for fellow non-senior PGs to do the same -- players like Mike Conley, Ty Lawson, Mario Chalmers, Darren Collison, Taurean Green and Javaris Crittenden. They'd be silly not to, and if they do that's good news for MU fans. And why wait around for the pleasure of being slotted after O.J. Mayo, Derrick Rose, and Eric Gordon in 2008?

James has been picked apart by skeptics and critics these last few months following an underwhelming sophomore season. Still, despite his depressed shooting percentages last year, James has things that you simply can't coach: sick hops, strength, remarkable speed and athleticism. And remember, the NBA drafts based on potential rather than production. If theres' a little mystery to a player's game, an inkling that a prospect can improve in one or two areas to become a very good NBA player -- well, the first round of every draft is full of players like that. Add in the potentially thin point guard class and the more wide open style of play in the NBA -- hey, who knows what can happen.

And let's face it, there's something to be said for declaring and going to the draft before your game is picked apart further and your skills are devalued. Or before injury sets in. Look at Chris Thomas, Chris Marcus, Randy Livingston, Ricky Paulding, Chris Porter, Terrence Morris and a host of players who failed to strike while the iron was hot. Individually, waiting to go to the NBA cost them millions.

Regardless, it says here that Dominic James will declare for the NBA draft soon, but will not hire an agent in order to protect his collegiate eligbility. I'd fully expect several other point guards to declare early --- so unless DJ blows up in individual workouts/the pre-draft camp expect him back at MU next season.

NBADraft.net to Dominic James: Stay in School

I have not followed the track record of the folks at NBADraft.net well enough to understand if their player evaluations are on target......but still, they do spend plenty of time evaluating talent -- and it seems now they are agreeing with the message board sentiment that Dominic James should return for his junior season.

NBADraft.net does not have James (or Ronald Steele for that matter) going in the 2007 NBA draft. In fact, the first PG on their board is Texas A&M's Acie Law in the middle of round one, followed by Sean Singletary of UVa in round two.

Here's an excerpt of their commentary on DJ -- under a grouping of players with collapsing draft stock (like Gonzaga's psychadelic Josh Heytvelt).

As a scoring point guard, he'll need to show better consistency.....James has elite level athleticism, but scouts worry about both his point guard skills and his outside shooting......his frigid recent play has lowered his stock into the second round and barring a huge turnaround, he'll likely be advised to return for his Junior season.

• Here is NBADraft.net's player profile of DJ (which includes some rather, um, unsubstantiated assertions (rumors?) that should be verified before reporting. Unsubtantiated character assassination. Given that NBAdraft.net is the only source making a few of the claims here, it makes you question their credibility. Stick to talent evaluation, I say).