Every year at this time, you look at the list of college basketball players who decided to forgo eligibility to stay in the NBA Draft and wonder “what on Earth are they doing?” Or you ask “did the draft go from two rounds to five rounds and no one told me?”
Leading the way in 2011 is Notre Dame forward Carleton Scott who played three seasons (2008-11) with the Irish, and had one year of eligibility remaining after sitting out his freshman season in 2007-08.
In 84 career outings (38 starts), he scored 557 points for a 6.6 career points per game average, grabbed 403 rebounds (4.8 per game) Kind of underwhelming numbers, yes? He didn’t exactly finish strong either, going 1-10 FG, 0-4 3 pt in the Irish elimination game in the round of 32 at the hands of Florida State
On the other hand, Scott was Notre Dame’s third-leading scorer this past season with a career-high 11.2 ppg and topped the squad with 7.4 rpg and 1.9 bpg. He reached double figures in 20 contests, 10-plus boards in 11 and had seven double-doubles.
And even though he very likely won’t get drafted, Scott graduates this month from the College of Arts and Letters with a degree in history and computer applications. So he probably just didn’t want to go to grad school. (understandable) And he isn’t leaving a great degree from a great school in a tough major on the table; he already has it.
Other “questionable” or “surprising” decisions to stay in draft:
This is a Paul M. Banks and David Kay collaboration
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