Yesterday brought a welcomed sigh of relief for Tad Boyle, Colorado's men's basketball program and its fans alike, as senior point guard McKinley Wright IV, after flirting with his professional prospects over the last few months, announced he was withdrawing his name from the NBA Draft.
Wright IV thus will return to Colorado for his senior season.
Tyler Bey, whose name has appeared regularly in NBA Mock Drafts for 2020, announced in late March that he'd be foregoing his senior campaign at Colorado.
While there was never much doubt that Bey, who announced his intention to pass on his senior season on March 29, intended to keep his name in the NBA Draft pool, Wright IV's decision so close to the NCAA deadline (Aug. 3) for players to retain their collegiate eligibility had some biting their fingernails in anticipation of what he would ultimately do.
It should go without saying how invaluable Wright IV has been to Colorado since his freshman season. Every year he's been at CU, he has led the Buffaloes in minutes played per game.
Wright IV has totaled 501 assists in his career at CU, leading the Buffs every year in the category. Pending a healthy 2020-21 season on par with what he's done in his freshman through junior campaigns, Wright IV seems a sure bet to end his CU career as the university's all-time leader in assists.
He trails current leader Jay Humphries (1980-1984) by 61 heading into this upcoming season.
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During the 2019-20 season, Boyle challenged Wright IV to step things up defensively, especially in the rebounding department and he did just that, posting a career-best 5.7 boards per game as a junior.
Wright IV's 183 total rebounds last season was third on the team behind Bey (280) and Evan Battey, who edged Wright IV by only five boards.
On that same note, Wright IV's 14.4 points per contest last season also was a career-high.
No matter how you spin it, the addition of Wright IV, a tested and consistent senior point guard, to the equation for Colorado in 2020-21 is a major positive.
For Wright IV, his senior campaign will be a way for him to further polish up his game and work on things he doubtless had been instructed to do so by NBA scouts and team officials in order to best position himself for the 2021 Draft.
At the same time, he'll have the chance to lead another good-looking Colorado team that has high hopes of making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015.
While the Buffs finished with a respectable 21-11 record last year and looked like a safe pick for March Madness before the COVID-19 pandemic brought on the tournament's cancellation as well as those of individual conferences, CU ended the year on a five-game losing streak which included an ugly first round exit from the Pac-12 Tournament.
Without Bey and graduated seniors Shane Gatling and Lucas Siewert, Boyle hopes those personnel losses will be offset by a talented incoming Class of 2020, one that features Tulsa graduate transfer Jeriah Horne (Boyle's first pickup from the grad transfer market during his tenure at Colorado) plus in-state prep standouts Dominique Clifford and Luke O'Brien.
Jabari Walker, a 6-foot-8 forward from California and Keeshawn Barthelemy, the redshirt freshman who practiced at point guard all last season with the Buffs, will be additional young pieces to the puzzle Boyle hopes will make quick contributions.
Aside from the youth factor, Wright IV will have his longtime companion D'Shawn Schwartz by his side, as well as Evan Battey and Eli Parquet, both of whom have now gotten accustomed to seeing extensive minutes on the court.
While the Buffaloes have no shortage of weapons, Wright IV is undoubtedly the leader of this team and his return as a senior exponentially increases Colorado's chances of being able to do something special in 2020-21.
