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When Greivis Vasquez put his name into the NBA Draft this offseason, Terrapin men's basketball coach Gary Williams was well prepared to guide his star point guard to the right decision.
During his 20 seasons in College Park, Williams has seen a number of underclassmen wishing to leave school early through the process. Some, such as Joe Smith, the No. 1 pick in the 1995 draft, had little choice but to make the jump. Others, such as Ekene Ibekwe and D.J. Strawberry in 2006, had little chance to be drafted and returned for their senior seasons.
With Vasquez, who officially withdrew his name from the draft on Monday hours before the deadline, the decision lay somewhere in between those two extremes. But yesterday Williams spoke of the similarities between the approach he took advising Vasquez with players in the past.
"When you recruit a player, you tell them you're gonna do what's in their best interest," Williams said in a phone interview. "Joe Smith at No. 1, Steve Francis at No. 2 - all those guys, if you're guaranteed that type of position, not a lot of people ever have the type of money, so it's smart to take it. All I try to do, at this point in my career, is through a lot of the NBA players, coaches I know, I can give them some good advice. I let them make the decision."
Vasquez, who worked out for more than 25 NBA teams over the last month and at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago in late May, was projected as a second-round pick. The goal, according to Williams, was to be guaranteed a first-round selection. First round NBA picks are awarded guaranteed contracts.
Through a series of meetings and consultations with Williams and high school coach Stu Vetter, Vasquez decided it would be prudent to return to school with the possibility of improving his stock.
"It has always been a goal of mine to graduate from the University of Maryland and earn my degree," Vasquez said in a prepared statement on Monday. "The experience that I have gained over the past few weeks has been invaluable and something that will help me to better prepare to play professional basketball after my senior season."
A draft class deep with quality point guards and a sub-par performance in a variety of physical tests and drills at the combine hurt Vasquez's stock, according to draft analysts. Williams was at the combine and said while Vasquez currently doesn't possess some of the pure athleticism of this year's draftees, he expects that to change with an extra season of college play.
"Coming back gives him a chance to become a better athlete," Williams said. "A lot of guys are great individual players - they have good physical abilities. But Greivis is a great five-on-five player, but you don't do that in those workouts."
Williams, along with Vetter, who coached Vasquez at Montrose Christian High School in Rockville, Md., advised the 6-foot-6 Venezuelan during the process.
But while Williams said he kept Vasquez's best interests in the forefront - as he did with Smith 14 years ago - he admitted he hoped his leading scorer, rebounder and passer from last season would return to maximize the team's potential success in 2009-2010.
"Team-wise, I wanted Greivis to come back," Williams said. "But at the same time if we were able to find out he was guaranteed in the first round, I probably would of told him to take advantage of that situation. We have a lot of other very good players. But him coming back makes us a very good basketball team this year."
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