Ballin' is a Habit

Cole Aldrich announced his intentions to declare for the NBA Draft this season, surprising, well, no one.

Aldrich will leave Lawrence with very little fan fare. After a great sophomore season and with the expectations that he, and the entire Kansas team, had coming into this season, the Jayhawks fizzled out in the tournament's second round and have already become somewhat of an aftethought. As a team, it was a disappointing finish to what was a pretty phenomenal season for Kansas. A Big XII regular season title, a Big XII tournament title, and the No. 1 overall seed is impressive no matter what round your season ended.

But Aldrich himself had a bit of a disappointing year.

Coming into the season, everyong knew that the big fella could defend the rim and rebound the ball, and nothing he did throughout the year did anything to change that sentiment. His 9.8 rpg and 3.5 bpg speak for themselves.

Where Aldrich did have question marks were on the offensive end of the floor. Could he be a go-to scorer in the post? And this year, he wasn't. His scoring dropped to just over 11 ppg. Granted, some of that had to do with the emergence of players like Xavier Henry and the Morris twins; Sherron Collins saw his offensive output take a hit as well simply because the Jayhawks didn't need the scoring.

But it is still a an issue scouts will have when looking at Aldrich. Is this a guy that is only going to be a defender and a rebounder, or will he be an offensive threat as well.

Regardless, Aldrich is going to be a top 10-15 pick, finishing a career that saw him win a national title, a slew of Big XII titles, and earn some all-americans considerations.

Best of luck to you, Cole.