Linking Laconically is trying to stay out of Durrell Summers' head

• What now? JaJuan Johnson declares for the NBA draft - Hammer and Rails
  No agent.  Boilermaker fans hold breath.
• Report: Illinois' McCamey to declare for NBA draft - Chicago Breaking Sports
  Illini fans, too.  Also not hiring an agent yet.  Actually seemed like most NBA-ready non-Evan Turner underclassman to me.
• Aaron Fuller leaving Hawkeyes; recruit Cody Larson granted release | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register
  Fran McCaffery will be working with a depleted roster.  (HT: Con-T)
• Should I Stay or Should I Go? | NBADraft.net
  Summers and Lucas both advised to stick around for another year.
• MSU men's basketball: Final Four run filled with highs, lows | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal
  Rexrode on the season's most memorable moments.  Did you remember Raymar Morgan scoring 16 points against Gonzaga on two bad ankles?
• Interview with Lansing State Journal MSU beat writer, Joe Rexrode | Spartan Avenue | A Michigan State Spartans Blog
  Speaking of Rexrode, the newest addition to the Spartan blogopshere, Spartan Avenue, wrangled an interview with him.
• Arrests don't help NBA draft stock, program's image - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN
  Things not going so well for New Mexico State since losing to MSU in the tournament.  Con-T has your deliciously facetious commentary on the situation here.
• MSU and Duke, revisited - LSJ Blogs: Hey, Joe
  One more Rexrode link.  MSU's first 15 years under Tom Izzo bear an uncanny resemblance to Duke's first 15 under Coach K.
• The NCAA tournament will self-destruct on April 29 - The Dagger - NCAAB Blog - Yahoo! Sports
  The end draws nigh.
• Star guards dominate Detroit News Dream Team | detnews.com | The Detroit News
  Keith Appling is a Dream Teamer.
• Alex Gauna makes all-state team | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal
  Impressive numbers for Gauna as a senior: 21.9 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, 25 made 3-pointers.  Oversimplistic ex-player comparison is clearly A.J. Granger (same initials, too!).
  
• Big Ten, Little Caesars Pizza Bowl reach deal - Big Ten Blog - ESPN
  Drops to #8 in selection order.  Get six wins as a Big Ten team and you get to go bowling. Period.
  
• Spring Football Update No. 3: Defense Wins Jersey Scrimmage In OT - MICHIGAN STATE OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
  93-90 isn't even a basketball score in the Big Ten.  Defense wins by creating 3 interceptions (2 thrown by Kirk Cousins).  Keith Nichol with 6 catches for 70 yards.

Nonlaconic Durrell Summers Nonupdate

The news that JaJuan Johnson and Demetri McCamey are planning to put their names in the NBA Draft increases the total number of Big Ten underclassmen (all of them juniors) formally exploring the draft to five.  Evan Turner, Manny Harris, and Talor Battle are other three.  Turner and Harris are the only two players that appear certain to stay in the draft.  The ultimate decisions made by Johnson and McCamey will have a pretty big impact on the quality of Big Ten play at the top of the league in 2011.

There's been no news of any sort (at least from the news sources this blogger follows) in recent days regarding Durrell Summers' decision making process about putting his name in the draft.  Here are the key dates leading up to the NBA Draft:

April 25 - NBA Early Entry Eligibility Deadline (11:59 p.m. ET)
April 29 - NBA Teams can conduct or attend workouts with Early Entrants
May 8 - NCAA Early Entrant Withdrawal Deadline
May 18 - 2010 NBA Draft Lottery (Madison Square Garden, NYC)
May 19-23 - NBA Draft Combine (Chicago, IL)
June 5-7 - adidas Eurocamp (Treviso, IT)
June 14 - NBA Draft Early Entrant (International players) Withdrawal Deadline (5:00 p.m. ET)
June 24 - NBA Draft (Madison Square Garden, NYC)

So Summers has almost two more weeks to decide whether to put his name in the mix.  If he does, he'll have another two weeks after that during which he can withdraw from the draft.

I've avoided blogging about this topic for the last week because it's hard to talk about an early entry decision without speculating about a player's motives and personal situation, which I am loathe to do.  At this point, I'll simply offer up my amateur scouting report: Summers has shown he can do two things very, very well: shoot jumpshots off passes and rebound the ball.  (He's also shown he can dunk the ball with authority, of course, but nearly every NBA shooting guard prospect can do that.)

I have a hard time envisioning Summers getting drafted in the first round and getting the guaranteed contract that comes with that.  Another year of college ball to work on shooting consistency, ball-handling, and defense would seem like the best route.  But I don't follow the NBA all that closely, so I can't say I have any real idea what NBA general managers look for these days.  It's possible that Summers' impressive run in the NCAA Tournament as the #1 perimeter scoring option has put him on GMs' radars.  (Also, there's the potential 2011 NBA lockout factor, but that seems to be offset by the glut of underclassmen declaring for the draft this year.)

Anyway, I certainly don't begrudge any college basketball player taking the option to explore his potential opportunities at the next level.  The only thing would alarm me would be if Summers signed with an agent before the deadline to withdraw his name, as that would seem like a sign he was placing more weight on an agent's opinion than on Tom Izzo's.

I think I just crossed the speculating-about-motives line, so I'll end there.

(Final note: I'm working under the assumption that Kalin Lucas' injury situation precludes any serious exploration of the draft on his part.  But stranger things have happened.  Again, best to wait for hard news and/or the deadline to pass IMO.)