They both waited patiently, then made their moves just as time was winding down.
It’s a play Bruin fans have seen Darren Collison make on the court many times, and now they’ll be watching him there for one more year. For Josh Shipp, the timing ““ and the announcement itself ““ came as much more of a surprise.
Collison, UCLA’s junior point guard, announced during a teleconference Saturday that he will forgo the NBA Draft to stay in Westwood for his senior season.
Shipp, a redshirt junior swingman, announced in a press release Sunday that he would enter the draft but would not hire an agent, leaving open the possibility of returning to UCLA.
The deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft was midnight on Sunday.
“The NBA has always been a dream, and when I go, I want to go big,” Collison said. “Therefore, I have decided that I will return for my senior year and continue in my quest for an NCAA Championship.”
Freshman Kevin Love, sophomore Russell Westbrook and junior Luc Richard Mbah a Moute all declared for the draft earlier this month, and the speculation was that Collison, who averaged 14.5 points per game and shot 52.5 percent from 3-point range this season, would join them. But as time wore on and the deadline approached, Collison said he began to lean more and more toward staying.
“(The decision) really just happened this week when I really put some thought into it,” Collison said. “I sat down with my parents, and we went over the pros and cons. It was a long list … (but I thought) I was getting so much more coming back.”
Though there was some speculation that Collison’s draft stock might have taken a major hit after his poor performance in UCLA’s Final Four loss to Memphis, Collison said that projections he had seen placed him somewhere between the end of the lottery to the mid-20s of the first round. But he said his biggest concern was making sure he made his decision for the right reasons.
“There were a couple times when my parents got really, really good feedback (about draft position),” he said. “When I kept looking at it, (I realized if I were to leave) it was because I was going high, because I was going to be a lottery player, because of the money. And that’s not what I wanted to do.”
From a basketball standpoint, Shipp’s decision seems curious. While he averaged 12.2 points per game, Shipp spent much of this season mired in a shooting slump ““ he shot only 32.4 percent from 3-point range ““ and doesn’t feature highly on many draft projections. But this is Shipp’s fourth year at UCLA, meaning he is close to completing his degree, so he has little to lose by working out for NBA teams and gauging his draft status.
“After speaking with my family and with coach (Ben) Howland, I think I should test the NBA waters to get some feedback,” Shipp said. “I feel like it really can’t hurt me at this time. I want to go through the process this year, which will serve as a positive experience for me in my future development.”
Collison’s return could make UCLA one of the country’s best teams heading into next season. Though Love’s departure is a near certainty, Westbrook’s is probable, and Mbah a Moute’s and Shipp’s are possible, the return of Collison, a healthy Mike Roll and UCLA’s highly touted class of incoming freshmen should give the Bruins one of the nation’s best backcourts.
“This will give us an opportunity, with the freshman class coming in, to really extend our defense and really force the tempo of the game,” Howland said. “You do that with your defense. We’re going to create a lot of opportunities with our quickness and our length.”
Howland also sounded like he was looking forward to the senior leadership Collison can provide.
“Believe me, he’s going to work,” Howland said. “Darren is my favorite type of person in that all he cares about is his family and basketball. He doesn’t have many other interests. He doesn’t care about cars. He doesn’t care about clothes. All he cares about is basketball and his family.”
Collison also mentioned that he is three quarters away from earning a degree and that his family is financially secure enough that the money he could earn as a first-round draft pick wasn’t a major factor in the decision. And so, as time ran down, he made his own choice.
“There are so many guys going to the NBA after their first or second year that sometimes when a guy stays for their junior or senior year, people start to think there’s a problem,” Collison said. “I don’t think that’s fair. I wanted to make my stance known at UCLA that I’m staying to compete for a national championship.”