Breathe a sigh of relief, Creighton fans: Maurice Watson has withdrawn his name from the NBA Draft and will officially return for his senior season this winter. The junior point guard had declared for the draft but not hired an agent, and after getting valuable feedback from scouts and teams, decided to come back to the Hilltop when he was not invited to the combine.
Watson’s first year at CU saw him quickly become not only their most productive player, statistically, but also their most important. He led the team in points (492), scoring average (14.1), assists (229), made free throws (115), and made field goals (179), and was second in steals (34). His 229 assists were the second most in Creighton history for a single season (trailing only Ralph Bobik’s 252 in 1973-74), tops in the Big East, and ninth-best nationally. And he finished the season eight points shy of becoming the first player in Creighton history to notch 500 points and 200 assists in the same season.
Oh, and Watson was named both Big East and National Player of the Week on February 15, after a huge week where he averaged 25.0 points, 7.5 assists, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals in two wins over #5 Xavier and Marquette. That’s a bigger deal than you think; he joined Kyle Korver, Tyler McKinney, Nate Funk, Kenny Lawson, Doug McDermott, and Ethan Wragge as Bluejays to have won a National Player of the Week honor since 2002.
He returns for his senior season as part of what could be one of the best backcourts in the nation, alongside the now-eligible Kansas State transfer Marcus Foster. In Watson and Foster, the Bluejays will have a one-two punch not many opponents can match — and perhaps the most prolific pair of guards for CU since Ben Walker and Ryan Sears wore the White and Blue. It will also give Syracuse transfer Kaleb Joseph a chance to spend a year as Watson’s understudy while he redshirts, and who better to mentor a transfer point guard than a guy who did it himself?
Here’s some of the reaction on Twitter to Watson’s decision:
https://twitter.com/sam_vecenie/status/728330171896320000
https://twitter.com/gottliebshow/status/728325702081228803
https://twitter.com/ryanholmgren/status/728341418373156864
https://twitter.com/pneil_3man/status/728335154440069120