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In a world full of ancient and meaningless rules, today's NCAA deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft is about as meaningless as it gets. As CBS' Jeff Goodman points out, this is a rule largely meant to...well, I'm not sure what it is largely meant to do:
The date was moved up in an effort to satisfy all those college coaches complaining about their kids being in limbo land for a couple of months while they bolted campus to prepare with so-called workouts gurus and zig-zagged the country, doing NBA workouts.
....
That's why we now have this NCAA date of April 16. It's for the coaches, but even they realize it's a phantom, meaningless deadline.
"In terms of a young man deciding to go pro, the only date that matters is April 28," Louisvillecoach Rick Pitino told CBSSports.com.
That's the NBA's deadline to declare for the June 27 Draft.
There's little to no benefit for any player to announce Tuesday or anytime before April 16 that he is declaring for the NBA. If a player does make it known officially, it means he cannot return to the college ranks. If he stays quiet, he still has another 12 days to gather more information -- and protect himself in case of injury.
So basically, the only way this 'rule' matters, is if a kid was to declare prior to today and then have a change or heart or injury and decide to return.
As it relates to Kelly Olynyk, it means nothing. He can stay quiet as he hasn't decided either way yet and then formally forego his senior year prior to the April 28th cut-off date as set by the NBA. Kelly can wait an additional 12 days, gather his thoughts, and make an educated decision. What would you expect from a guy that has already earned his degree and is working on his MBA?
As Goodman points out later in the story, the only true benefit of declaring before this deadline is that you can drop out of school faster which I don't think is a major desire for Kelly.
With all this being said, I have heard rumblings that Kelly is having a tough time deciding. It has been noted numerous times that Kelly is well-engrossed in the fiber of Gonzaga and that he simply loves the college life. With that said, he's completed his degree and is projected to be a late lottery pick my most experts. My gut tells me that he is gone but I would absolutely love to be proven wrong.