NEW YORK — NBA Combines seem all the rage these days.
First Kentucky did it (twice).
Now LSU and later this month UNLV are following suit.
So, could a Big East school be next?
“Is that something I would be open to in the future? Yeah, I think it’s good publicity, I think it’s a good recruiting tool,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III told SNY.tv on Wednesday at Big East Media Day at Madison Square Garden. “But at the end of the day I think it’s good to leave the door open and let those guys [NBA scouts] come in all throughout the year.”
Thompson III said he doesn’t believe in letting the NBA scouts come in for one day in October and then shutting them out for the rest of the season so that the kids can focus on their college team because he would want the scouts to see players evolve over the season. Kentucky coach John Calipari reportedly shut his practices down to NBA scouts for a period after running his initial NBA Combine in 2014.
“During the course of the year, kids get better, kids improve, kids change,” Thompson said. “So if that’s the option, I don’t necessarily want to do that early and then shut it down. This is Oct. 14 and we probably have had 20 different [NBA] teams in already and they’ll be back.”
Among Georgetown players, sophomore power forward Isaac Copeland is projected as the No. 47 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com.
Villanova coach Jay Wright, whose team was a unanimous pick to win the Big East, features freshman guard Jalen Brunson, the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year and the projected No. 27 pick in 2017.
“I think [combines] are a good idea if you’ve got the guys that the NBA wants to come and see,” Wright said. “I think a good idea for our league would be a league combine.”
