The college basketball season ends; NBA draft awaits

In the NCAA March Madness basketball brackets,  it was no surprise that the Baylor Bears took home the men’s trophy.  As for the women, Stanford University’s team — not the women of the University of Connecticut — traveled back to its campus with a trophy on its back.

The University of Connecticut, a perennial women’s college basketball powerhouse, had an excellent run in the tournament but fell short in the Final Four. Still, superstar point guard Paige Bueckers made her mark by leading her team as she averaged 19.7 points. Bueckers went home as the first freshman ever to receive the Wooden Award, which goes to the country’s most outstanding player. Bueckers also received the U.S. Basketball Writers’ Association  Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, the Naismith Trophy, and even the AP National Player of the Year award. It is clear that in the coming years she will be, if she isn’t already, one of the best players in college basketball.

As the NCAA women and men’s basketball season is officially over, many players from schools all across the country are announcing their decisions for their future. For men, they must complete one academic and an athletic collegiate year or if they decide after high school to go to the G League, again one year. For the women, they must graduate after playing four years in college or be four years removed from high school.

On July 29, the 2021 NBA Draft will take place in an undisclosed location and help the Top Five picks, along with many others, decide where they will move to play for a new city. Cade Cunningham, a freshman guard, is projected to be the first overall pick out of Oklahoma State. Evan Mobley and Jonathan Kuminga, both freshmen, are expected to be the second and third pick, with Mobley from USC and Kuminga from the G League. The fourth pick is expected to be Jalen Suggs, an aggressive freshman from Gonzaga, and the fifth pick is expected to be G-League star Jalen Green.