Columnist Dean Juipe: Don’t worry, Blankson will be back

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Odartey Blankson will be back with the UNLV basketball team next season. He's just spending a couple of months bolstering his reputation.

Blankson applied this week to be considered for the June 24 NBA draft but has not hired an agent and has until June 17 to pull his name from consideration. In all probability, he will do just that and return to the Rebels for his senior season.

Blankson took people in Las Vegas by surprise with the announcement that he wanted to be listed as draft eligible, but I think there's a little behind-the-scenes gamesmanship going on. I think his real incentive is to gain some attention, get invited to the pre-draft camp June 1-4 in Chicago and position himself to be scouted and perhaps taken in the 2005 draft.

Like many of you, I have seen a lot of UNLV basketball players throughout the years and not once has someone from here made it to the NBA without having a preponderance of natural, obvious talent. Blankson, from my perspective, has not shown that preponderance of indisputable talent just yet.

He's not ready for the NBA and maybe never will be. He's certainly not likely to be selected this year.

But he is a still developing -- and, based on the press release from UNLV, a still growing -- 6-foot-9 small forward with adequate skills and determination. He averaged 17.6 points last season and led the Mountain West Conference with 10.2 rebounds per game and was among the nation's leaders with 19 double-doubles.

Prior to this week he was neither on pro scouts' radar screens nor listed as so much as an outside threat to be picked in this year's draft. But by at least temporarily declaring for the draft and wiggling into the pre-draft camp, he potentially raises his stature and recognition level several notches.

He's testing the waters and it gives him the opportunity to be noticed and taken seriously.

It's a strategic move that could work to his benefit. For sure, he has nothing to lose -- provided he is afforded good advice and rescinds his draft eligibility by the specified date, as opposed to remaining draft eligible and not selected.

The risk he is accepting is minimal and nothing at all like the chance the country's top six high school players are taking, as each of them has or will declare himself for the NBA draft and a couple have already hired agents. Granted, the influx of players in the league gets younger and more international every year, but the direct-to-the-pros path that many high school players are taking is eye opening if nothing else.

Sebastian Telfair, J.R. Smith, Shaun Livingston, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith and Dwight Howard all played at the high-school level this past season, and each plans to skip college and head straight for the pros. It's a risky proposition for each of the players and the teams tempted to select them as well.

It's said that as many as a dozen other high-school players may yet meet the May 10 deadline to declare themselves eligible for the draft.

The presence of this many high schoolers in the mix works against Blankson, although it can be argued that the number of teens in the draft is unlikely to ever decline again and that their presence alone is hardly reason for a college player to delay a decision to turn pro. Yet Blankson, as a junior without sensational clippings and minus a heralded past, would have to have an incredible pre-draft camp to turn enough heads and kindle the type of interest it takes to be picked in the draft.

I think he's playing the cards at his disposal and maybe even doing the right thing. He's telling those who assess talent that he feels he has NBA ability and he's reminding those who call the shots that he sees himself as a factor.

If nothing more comes of it than going to Chicago and finding out for himself where he stands, Blankson can say he gained from the experience.

But he'll gain a whole lot more by playing his senior season for the Rebels and I'm reasonably sure that's just what he'll do.