Steele’s return crucial if Pickett transfers
April 07, 2008
Alabama senior point guard Ronald Steele is the second Crimson Tide player to announce he’ll enter the NBA draft in June.
Steele, who missed all of last season and the second half of the 2006-07 campaign with a devastating knee injury, has not retained an agent and could come back for his senior season next fall.
Steele and junior Richard Hendrix have joined many players with college eligibility remaining in this exploratory step.
Frankly, I don’t know why every junior in college basketball doesn’t take this route. You get feedback from the NBA — even if it’s laughter and ridicule — and, as long as you steer clear of an agent, you get to come back to school.
In Steele’s case, from this vantage point, it’s pretty unlikely that an NBA team would draft a player who hasn’t seen the floor in a year and a half due to injury. His chances are even slimmer since Isiah Thomas isn’t running the New York Knicks’ front office. So it’s likely Steele will be back.
Which should be good news for the Tide, considering freshman point guard Rico Pickett is reported to be transferring.
Pickett has been suspended indefinitely. Coach Mark Gottfried said it’s because the freshman hasn’t complied with team rules.
“We have standards and levels academically as well as athletically that our student-athletes need to meet, and there are consequences when they fail to do that,” Gottfried said.
Pickett’s father said grades had nothing to do with this. The freshman from Decatur said when Pickett informed the team he was leaving, he was suspended.
Pickett got schooled for much of his freshman year, although he returned to the starting lineup and directed the team down the stretch.
If he doesn’t come back and Steele doesn’t return, Alabama will be under the gun to find a point guard. A number of weapons are coming back, but each will be limited without someone getting the ball to the right people in the right spots on the floor.
Even if Steele comes back, he will shoulder a greater burden without Pickett’s presence. The beating and banging, wear and tear of an SEC season takes a toll on the healthiest of players — let alone one coming back from rehab with so much to prove.
