NCAA Basketball: 5 biggest offseason takeaways heading into 2020-21 season
By Ben Dickson
Fluid Deadlines, Top Talent Returns
The NBA Draft, which usually takes place in late June, was pushed back to November 25 this year due to, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Players testing the waters were initially supposed to have until August 3 or ten days after the NBA Draft Combine, whichever came first, to make their decisions.
As we know now, the combine never happened in its normal form. August 17 was the final deadline set. That date was the latest in the calendar that players declaring for the draft have ever been able to decide to come back to school.
The result of this? A ton of talent returning to their respective schools. Since the draft process was as limited as ever, information from teams was hard for prospects to gauge. Illinois’ Ayo Dosumnu and Iowa’s Luka Garza returns put both of their respective teams at the top of the Big Ten. Jared Butler returned to a potential top-3 Baylor team. Corey Kispert and Joel Ayayi’s returns keep Gonzaga right on top of the nation. There are plenty of more potential NBA names returning to teams that will be ranked.
The amount of talent flowing back into NCAA Basketball for this upcoming year is great for the game. The majority of teams in the preseason top-ten will almost certainly feature top returning talent. While the whole NBA Draft process may have been a confusing one for the prospects themselves, it surely will end up helping college basketball in the long run.