All Eyes Turn to McNeil

Friday night, Greg Carey of MetroNews reported that WVU guard Miles McBride informed head coach Bob Huggins that he intends to remain in the 2021 NBA Draft and forgo his junior and seniors seasons at WVU.

After McBride's performance at the NBA Combine, draft experts began moving him well into the 1st round of the draft. When Huggins spoke to the media earlier in the week, it seemed like he was hinting that he felt it would be in McBride's best interest to return to school.

"You take, for example, Marcus Smart, if he had came out after his freshman year he was projected to make $653k a year. He stayed. So the next draft year, he moved up in the draft and he made $3.7 million. I think those things are things that guys have to take a really hard look at. Where am I going to be in the draft? Who is on the team that potentially I'm going to get drafted by? There's a lot of things for 19-20-year-olds to think about. Do you go right away? Do you think you can come back and have a bigger year and move up?"

Only time will tell if McBride made the right decision but now, all attention turns to WVU's other NBA Draft prospect, Sean McNeil.

McNeil had five 20-point games this past season, including in the team's 2nd round loss to Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament where he hit seven three-pointers on his way to 23 points. He finished the season averaging 12.2 points per game and shot 88% from the free-throw line, 40% from the field, and 38% from beyond the arc.

There's no questioning McNeil's shooting ability but for him to become a draftable player, he has to become more of a threat to drive the ball inside and improve his defense. McNeil's name has been absent from just about every mock draft I've seen on the interwebs over the course of the last couple of months, so I don't believe he will be on the radar for many teams in this draft class.

Huggins also praised McNeil earlier this week for his offensive output, stating that he believes he is one of the better players in the Big 12. If he returns, that still gives West Virginia a solid backcourt with Taz Sherman, McNeil, and Old Dominion transfer, Malik Curry.

"Obviously those guys (Sherman & McNeil) were two of the best shooters in our league. Those two guys can really get going and make shots. I think both of them are going to continue to get better in other areas. We certainly need to pass it better and we need to guard better. I feel very confident that those guys will be able to do that."

The deadline for players to withdraw their names from the 2021 NBA Draft is set for July 7th.

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