Spring Break
Come back Thabeet
Kevin Duffy
Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: Sports
Maybe is a dangerous word. It offers doubt, yet at the same time, it offers hope.
And that's exactly what Hasheem Thabeet - currently slotted at No. 3 overall in NBADraft.net's latest mock draft - has done since UConn's season ended 10 days ago. He's given us hope.
All year long, Thabeet's entry into the draft seemed to be a forgone conclusion.
After UConn's "Senior Night," Thabeet was talking an awful lot like A.J. Price, Jeff Adrien and Craig Austrie.
"Myself, I know I'm going to miss the guys," Thabeet said. "I've been around a great group of guys and I love them, you know, I'm going to miss them."
Following UConn's Final Four exit against Michigan State - where Thabeet despondently moped on the bench with a towel over his face - he didn't offer much insight as to any reason he'd come back.
"Winning," he said with a pause. "Maybe."
At first, we took that "maybe" as a "yeah, right." But with each passing day - as Blake Griffin, Eric Devendorf, Paul Harris, DeJuan Blair, James Johnson and the other underclassmen have already put their names into the NBA Draft - it somehow seems as though Thabeet is actually considering a return for his senior year.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. This has "Dumb and Dumber" written all over it. The chances that Thabeet will come back to UConn next season are still pretty slim. One in 100? More like one in a million.
But at the same time, Thabeet is "telling us there's a chance..."
Word is that he met with coach Jim Calhoun yesterday to discuss what suddenly appears to be a decision. Calhoun was likely fair in his advice to Thabeet - after the Michigan State loss he said, "I can't honestly look him in the eye and tell him he's not ready, because he is" - but we can't sure he covered all the bases.
That's where we come in. A group of Avon Old Farms high school students took the initiative by starting a Facebook group, "Hasheem Thabeet - Stay One More Year," which reached 3,406 members at press time. That's a start, and this column is the second step.
And that's exactly what Hasheem Thabeet - currently slotted at No. 3 overall in NBADraft.net's latest mock draft - has done since UConn's season ended 10 days ago. He's given us hope.
All year long, Thabeet's entry into the draft seemed to be a forgone conclusion.
After UConn's "Senior Night," Thabeet was talking an awful lot like A.J. Price, Jeff Adrien and Craig Austrie.
"Myself, I know I'm going to miss the guys," Thabeet said. "I've been around a great group of guys and I love them, you know, I'm going to miss them."
Following UConn's Final Four exit against Michigan State - where Thabeet despondently moped on the bench with a towel over his face - he didn't offer much insight as to any reason he'd come back.
"Winning," he said with a pause. "Maybe."
At first, we took that "maybe" as a "yeah, right." But with each passing day - as Blake Griffin, Eric Devendorf, Paul Harris, DeJuan Blair, James Johnson and the other underclassmen have already put their names into the NBA Draft - it somehow seems as though Thabeet is actually considering a return for his senior year.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. This has "Dumb and Dumber" written all over it. The chances that Thabeet will come back to UConn next season are still pretty slim. One in 100? More like one in a million.
But at the same time, Thabeet is "telling us there's a chance..."
Word is that he met with coach Jim Calhoun yesterday to discuss what suddenly appears to be a decision. Calhoun was likely fair in his advice to Thabeet - after the Michigan State loss he said, "I can't honestly look him in the eye and tell him he's not ready, because he is" - but we can't sure he covered all the bases.
That's where we come in. A group of Avon Old Farms high school students took the initiative by starting a Facebook group, "Hasheem Thabeet - Stay One More Year," which reached 3,406 members at press time. That's a start, and this column is the second step.
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