Andy Katz on State.
Mississippi State: Roberts agonized over his decision to stay in the draft or go back to Starkville. As late as Wednesday night, he could be seen on ESPN’s Outside the Lines going back and forth between risking his NBA future and returning to Mississippi State.Roberts had gone to Chicago for the pre-draft camp but left without a first-round guarantee. His father, Lawrence Roberts, said the phone was eerily quiet in the days after Chicago this week. No one was calling trying to get Roberts for a workout.
But Roberts still hadn’t decided to withdraw from the draft until he drove home to get ready for a live announcement Thursday afternoon on ESPNews, faxing his response to the NBA minutes before the deadline.
“It was such a big relief once I made the decision,” said Roberts, who scored 16.9 points and grabbed 10.1 rebounds a game to lead the Bulldogs to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Roberts is the only one of the five Wooden Award finalists to return to school. Two of the four other finalists — Emeka Okafor (Connecticut) and Josh Childress (Stanford) — declared early for the draft and are headed to the lottery. The other two — Wooden Award winner Jameer Nelson (Saint Joseph’s) and Chris Duhon (Duke) — were seniors.
Roberts now enters the 2004-05 season as the favorite to defend his SEC player of the year award and compete with a short list of favorites for national player of the year honors.
“I want that award,” Roberts said of the Wooden and Naismith player of the year honors. “There are a lot of goals I want to meet.”
Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury was ecstatic upon hearing the news. He said he is now “1 for 4″ against the NBA after losing signees Jonathan Bender and Travis Outlaw to the NBA, and then watching junior Mario Austin bolt early last year.
The Bulldogs lost starting guard Timmy Bowers and forward Branden Vincent but return Winsome Frazier, Shane Power and Gary Ervin — the latter three were key contributors last season.
“This means so much to our team, to our program, to the university, the state and college basketball,” Stansbury said. “It’s rare to have a player like this come back for his senior season. It’s hard enough to get these guys to come back for their sophomore year. He’ll get his degree and we’ll have a chance to compete for another championship.”
As for his NBA draft experience, Roberts went to one workout in Portland and must repay the expenses to ensure his eligibility. But Roberts didn’t get any other invites for workouts and that was the most frustrating thing for him in the draft process.
“The timing was the toughest thing because I didn’t have much time after Chicago to make my decision,” Roberts said of returning from Chicago Tuesday and needing to make a decision by Thursday.
