Search
Brackins will be back for junior year
Iowa State forward will skip 2009 draft
By Courtney Linehan
Date Posted: 2009-04-24
When Iowa State’s season ended March 11, Craig Brackins headed home. For one week, he visited friends and family in Palmdale, Calif., went to the beach and showed his college roommate around town. He only thought about basketball during trips to Los Angeles for Clippers and Lakers games.
He wanted to clear his mind before deciding whether his next season would be spent on a college or NBA court.
On Friday, Brackins announced he will return for his junior season, hoping one more year in Ames gives him the mental and physical maturity to not only play in the NBA, but become a star.
“I told Craig a long time ago, ‘I’d like you to be a lottery pick, and we’re going to coach you to be a lottery pick,’†coach Greg McDermott said. “When that takes place, when the time is right, it’ll be right.â€
ESPN.com ranked Brackins as the No.18 prospect if he’d entered this year’s draft, while Draftexpress.com had him as the 19th pick. He said he avoided looking at mock drafts, but had been told by Iowa State coaches that he had a good chance of making it in the league this season.
Brackins had deliberated the possibility of entering the 2009 NBA draft since January, when he scored 42 points in a breakout game against Kansas. He said the question rattled through his head almost endlessly for four weeks after his return from California and before finally deciding early this week that he will stay in school.
Now he’s so confident in his choice, he opened his 20-minute press conference with a joke, saying he’d been chosen as Iowa State’s next wrestling coach.
“I knew my decision,†he said. “And I knew I was 150 percent into my decision, so that made it easy.â€
After that spring break trip to Palmdale, Brackins admits he was leaning toward leaving school. McDermott said there was a point when he doubted Brackins would be back. But in the past several weeks, a core group of confidants and his own desire to achieve more at the college level led him back to ISU.
Brackins’ mom, Jane Mukes, said she wanted her son to make his own choice. She knew even the allure of a multimillion-dollar contract wouldn’t make much difference, and was happy about that.
When he called her early this week to say he’d settled on a final decision, Mukes wasn’t surprised that he would remain in Ames.
“When Craig feels like wherever he is is home, then he does his best,†she said. “If he has supporters who believe in him, he explodes. He can do whatever he puts his mind to, as long as he has that support.â€
Much of that support in Ames comes from ISU assistant coach T.J. Otzelberger, who first coached Brackins in AAU basketball. Otzelberger helped Brackins weigh different futures. Ultimately, though, he said he is happier that Brackins was level headed during the decision making process than he is to see his star recruit back at Iowa State.
“I was proud of him because I thought he went through and sorted everything out and made the best decision for himself,†Otzelberger said.
Brackins kept his plans private from even his teammates, who he says did not know whether he’d be back. He told his mom last weekend, met with McDermott on Tuesday and informed his roommate, team manager Tyler Hansen, Thursday evening during a trip to the grocery store.
“I got out of the car at Hy-Vee, there’s hundreds of people walking by, and I just gave him a big hug,†Hansen said. “I couldn’t have been happier for him.â€
With the celebration winding down, Brackins is ready to focus on improving so both he and the Cyclones will have happier futures. He wants to work on his defense and knows gaining weight will make more NBA teams take notice. McDermott says he needs to be a more consistent perimeter shooter. And after talking to former Cyclone guard Mike Taylor, now with the L.A. Clippers, he knows he needs to be mentally prepared for the pros as well.
This weekend, he’s flying back to California, to see his mom and relax after several stressful weeks. But he’ll be back in Ames on Sunday, and says he’s ready to begin working toward next season.
“There was just this empty feeling inside me that there’s a couple more things I wanted to do here,†Brackins said. “I felt next year, with the players we’ll have and the players who are returning, we can do those things. I couldn’t leave that.â€
Courtney Linehan can be reached at (515) 663-6930, or clinehan@amestrib.com.
Iowa State forward will skip 2009 draft
By Courtney Linehan
Date Posted: 2009-04-24
Craig Brackins announced Friday that he will return to Ames for a junior season with the Iowa State men's basketball team.
Photo by Karl Hauber.
Photo by Karl Hauber.
When Iowa State’s season ended March 11, Craig Brackins headed home. For one week, he visited friends and family in Palmdale, Calif., went to the beach and showed his college roommate around town. He only thought about basketball during trips to Los Angeles for Clippers and Lakers games.
He wanted to clear his mind before deciding whether his next season would be spent on a college or NBA court.
On Friday, Brackins announced he will return for his junior season, hoping one more year in Ames gives him the mental and physical maturity to not only play in the NBA, but become a star.
“I told Craig a long time ago, ‘I’d like you to be a lottery pick, and we’re going to coach you to be a lottery pick,’†coach Greg McDermott said. “When that takes place, when the time is right, it’ll be right.â€
ESPN.com ranked Brackins as the No.18 prospect if he’d entered this year’s draft, while Draftexpress.com had him as the 19th pick. He said he avoided looking at mock drafts, but had been told by Iowa State coaches that he had a good chance of making it in the league this season.
Brackins had deliberated the possibility of entering the 2009 NBA draft since January, when he scored 42 points in a breakout game against Kansas. He said the question rattled through his head almost endlessly for four weeks after his return from California and before finally deciding early this week that he will stay in school.
Now he’s so confident in his choice, he opened his 20-minute press conference with a joke, saying he’d been chosen as Iowa State’s next wrestling coach.
“I knew my decision,†he said. “And I knew I was 150 percent into my decision, so that made it easy.â€
After that spring break trip to Palmdale, Brackins admits he was leaning toward leaving school. McDermott said there was a point when he doubted Brackins would be back. But in the past several weeks, a core group of confidants and his own desire to achieve more at the college level led him back to ISU.
Brackins’ mom, Jane Mukes, said she wanted her son to make his own choice. She knew even the allure of a multimillion-dollar contract wouldn’t make much difference, and was happy about that.
When he called her early this week to say he’d settled on a final decision, Mukes wasn’t surprised that he would remain in Ames.
“When Craig feels like wherever he is is home, then he does his best,†she said. “If he has supporters who believe in him, he explodes. He can do whatever he puts his mind to, as long as he has that support.â€
Much of that support in Ames comes from ISU assistant coach T.J. Otzelberger, who first coached Brackins in AAU basketball. Otzelberger helped Brackins weigh different futures. Ultimately, though, he said he is happier that Brackins was level headed during the decision making process than he is to see his star recruit back at Iowa State.
“I was proud of him because I thought he went through and sorted everything out and made the best decision for himself,†Otzelberger said.
Brackins kept his plans private from even his teammates, who he says did not know whether he’d be back. He told his mom last weekend, met with McDermott on Tuesday and informed his roommate, team manager Tyler Hansen, Thursday evening during a trip to the grocery store.
“I got out of the car at Hy-Vee, there’s hundreds of people walking by, and I just gave him a big hug,†Hansen said. “I couldn’t have been happier for him.â€
With the celebration winding down, Brackins is ready to focus on improving so both he and the Cyclones will have happier futures. He wants to work on his defense and knows gaining weight will make more NBA teams take notice. McDermott says he needs to be a more consistent perimeter shooter. And after talking to former Cyclone guard Mike Taylor, now with the L.A. Clippers, he knows he needs to be mentally prepared for the pros as well.
This weekend, he’s flying back to California, to see his mom and relax after several stressful weeks. But he’ll be back in Ames on Sunday, and says he’s ready to begin working toward next season.
“There was just this empty feeling inside me that there’s a couple more things I wanted to do here,†Brackins said. “I felt next year, with the players we’ll have and the players who are returning, we can do those things. I couldn’t leave that.â€
Courtney Linehan can be reached at (515) 663-6930, or clinehan@amestrib.com.
| Comments |
|
We welcome comments on all sides of all issues. We want our comment forums to be a respectful, comfortable place for people of all opinions to discuss topics of interest. Toward that end, we will not approve comments that contain profanity, obscenity, libel, name-calling, or personal attack. We reserve the right to disapprove any comment for any reason.
|