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Iowa basketball just got some good news, as Tyler Cook announced he’s deciding to withdraw from the NBA draft and return to Iowa City for another year.
Iowa’s Tyler Cook told ESPN he will return to school for his junior season.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) May 30, 2018
Cook led the team in both scoring and rebounding at 15.3 PPG and 6.8 RPG, respectively, last year. He also ate up around 30 minutes a game — finding someone to fill his role was going to be an uphill battle for the coaching staff.
For Iowa fans, this decision seems to make the most sense. As of this writing, 78 underclassmen have already fully declared for the NBA draft. That doesn’t include seniors or Europeans or the dozen or so underclassmen still left to decide. Remember, there are only 60 picks in the NBA draft.
Cook may have seen some Big Ten players such as Carsen Edwards, Ethan Happ and James Palmer Jr. declare their intentions to withdraw from the draft this week and decide he wants to face them again in conference play. Or maybe he didn’t get great feedback from the NBA teams he worked out with.
Hopefully Cook will take the feedback he learned from NBA scouts, work on it this offseason, and bring it back to Iowa City this year. Last season was disappointing, yes, but there’s plenty of reason for optimism next year — especially with Cook coming back.
Best of luck to Cook and the rest of the team this upcoming season. There’s really nowhere to go but up.