Back for More: Will Richardson Withdraws from 2022 NBA Draft

The celebrities are aligning for Dana Altman and the 2022-23 Oregon Geese.

Veteran Guard Will Richardson will withdraw his identify from the 2022 NBA Draft and return to Oregon for his fifth and closing season, as first reported by Stadium’s Jeff Goodman.

Richardson took his time along with his choice to postpone his skilled profession, ready all the way in which till the deadline of June 1 to take away his identify from the draft pool. The choice additionally comes sooner or later after Richardson was Southern California understanding for the Los Angeles Lakers with a lot of different potential professional’s.

Richardson’s final season in Eugene was a rollercoaster. At his finest, Richardson was dropping 28 factors on the highway towards USC to steer Oregon to back-to-back top-five wins on the highway. 

At his worst, Richardson was a no-show. After just a few poor video games to finish the season, Richardson was absent from Oregon’s Pac-12 Match and N.I.T. run. Altman has since stated that Richardson was affected by mononucleosis. 

However Oregon’s late-season collapse nonetheless left a poor style within the mouths of Duck followers, and plenty of pointed criticism in the direction of workforce chief Richardson. 

Oregon Guard Will Richardson

No matter how the final season ended, Richardson returning is large for Oregon subsequent season. He led the workforce in scoring (14 factors per recreation) and three-point proportion (38.8%) whereas additionally taking a majority of the ball-handler duties.

Altman has been working his offseason magic once more, even exterior of Richardson returning to high school. A number of days earlier, ahead Quincy Guerrier eliminated his identify from the NBA Draft and introduced his personal return to Eugene.

Becoming a member of Richardson within the again courtroom are guards Jermaine Couisnard and Keeshawn Barthelemy, who transferred to Oregon from South Carolina and Colorado respectively. Each gamers have prior Division 1 expertise and have the expertise to slip proper into the beginning unit.

The Geese have additionally secured transfers from JUCO stars Tyrone Williams, who led all Division 1 JUCO gamers in scoring final season, and Brennan Rigsby from Northwest Florida State, a college that is emerged as Oregon recruiting hotspot lately.

Altman may also be welcoming two of probably the most thrilling commits in Oregon basketball historical past this summer season in ESPN 100 recruits Kel’el Ware and Dior Johnson. Ware ought to slot in completely with Richardson as a really perfect pick-and-roll companion; Johnson could not.

Johnson is used to having the ball in his fingers rather a lot. With Richardson again within the fold, will probably be attention-grabbing to see how Altman aligns this yr’s Rubik’s Dice.

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Observe Graham on Twitter: @grahammetzker

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