Back in the bluegrass

Magloire to return to Kentucky for senior season

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Posted: Friday June 25, 1999 05:44 PM

Loyalty to coach Tubby Smith and a chance at winning another national championship will keep Jamaal Magloire at UK. Jonathan Daniel/Allsport

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) -- Though he believed he was a certain first-round pick in the NBA draft, Kentucky center Jamaal Magloire said Thursday that he has withdrawn his name from the draft and will return to college for his senior season.

Magloire said he went back and forth about the decision several times daily over the last six weeks before notifying the NBA late Wednesday that he was removing his name from draft consideration.

"It's been the hardest decision I've ever had to make ... I had to go with what my heart was saying," Magloire said. "It was a win-win situation."

Weber State's Harold "The Show" Arceneaux , Edwin "Greedy" Daniels of UNLV and Lamont Long of New Mexico also withdrew their names, as did several foreign players and a couple from junior colleges.

The 6-foot-10 Toronto native Magloire averaged seven points and 4.4 rebounds last year during an up-and-down junior season. He was suspended twice for disciplinary reasons in the first half of the season, then raised his level of play and became a major contributor in the Wildcats' postseason run to the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament.

Magloire said he wants to go even further in 2000.

"I would like to accomplish another national championship," said Magloire, who was a backup on the Wildcats' 1998 title team. "I think the potential on this team is scary."

Magloire said he also felt loyalty to Kentucky and coach Tubby Smith, whose program has been hit hard this spring with the graduation of seniors Scott Padgett, Wayne Turner and Heshimu Evans and the transfers of center Michael Bradley and guard Ryan Hogan.

"We've had some other players transfer, and I really couldn't turn my back," Magloire said.

Magloire had said in May that he would put his name in for the draft, but would not sign with an agent and would continue to attend classes, leaving open the option to return.

Many analysts had projected Magloire as a second-round pick in the draft, but he said he was confident he played himself into the first round -- and a guaranteed three-year, seven-figure contract -- with a strong performance earlier this month at the pre-draft camp in Chicago.

"I think anybody that thought I was going to be a second-round pick is fooling themselves," Magloire said.

Asked where he thought he might go in the draft with another year of college play, Magloire said, "Lottery. I'm going to work my tail off, not accept anything else."

Magloire spent Wednesday in Cleveland working out for the Cavaliers and returned to Lexington in the early evening. Because his flight was delayed, Smith said, Magloire got permission from the NBA to extend the deadline for withdrawing his name past the NBA's 5 p.m. cutoff.

After meeting with Smith in his office and taking time to think things through, Smith said Magloire called him around 8 p.m. with the news that he would stay.

Kentucky basketball spokesman Brooks Downing had told reporters shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday that the school had not heard from Magloire and was proceeding on the assumption that he had not withdrawn his name from the draft. However, the school did not make public Magloire's decision to stay until a Thursday afternoon news conference.

Smith said he was pleasantly surprised by Magloire's decision.

"His attitude alone is going to rub off on the younger players," Smith said.

Magloire and former walk-on Steve Masiello, who Smith said Thursday has been given a full scholarship, will be Kentucky's only returning seniors. Guard Saul Smith will be the only returning junior.

Kentucky has five returning sophomores and is adding junior college transfer Nate Knight and freshmen Keith Bogans, Marvin Stone and Marquis Estill.

Though Smith said in May that he felt Magloire would benefit from another year in school, he said that the day he spent at the pre-draft camp in Chicago convinced him Magloire would be drafted late in the first round.

"I thought he would be one of the top post-men taken," Smith said.

 

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Jamaal Magloire says the decision to stay at Kentucky was difficult to reach. (140 K) Kentucky coach Tubby Smith thinks Jamaal Magloire would benefit from another year in college. (108 K) Click here for the latest audio and video
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