Player Profie: Emmanuel Mudiay

April 12, 2015
by Gabe Akins


NBA Draft 2015:
Emmanuel Mudiay

(Dallas News)

     One of the most interesting players coming into this year's draft is 6-5 point guard Emmanuel Mudiay from Dallas, Texas. A star player for Prime Prep High School, Mudiay was ranked the 5th overall prospect in the class of 2014 by ESPN. Short into his senior season, Mudiay surprisingly committed to SMU, a school without much of a basketball history. Mudiay was expected to be the star of a young SMU team that was expected to win their conference after one of their best seasons in recent history. However, Mudiay's future was everything but this.
     In the summer of 2014, Mudiay decided to bypass his college career and chose to sign with the Guangdong Southern Tigers in China for a deal worth $1.2 million over one year. Some linked this to Mudiay's academics and his family's financial stability. In an ESPN article written by Jeff Goodman, an insider close to the situation said, "The NCAA is on him. And he's worried." This was a tough loss for the NCAA as they lost one of the most exciting high school prospects in recent years. However, not all was bad for Mudiay as he had a successful stint in the CBA with the Guandong Tigers.
     In Mudiay's one year with the Tigers, he averaged 18 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 6 assists per game. This experience for Mudiay was good because he learned how to be a professional, even though it wasn't in the NBA. Mudiay still remains a top 5 draft pick in the upcoming draft but could' have benefitted more from the college game.
     If Mudiay had decided to stay at SMU, he could have been a part of 30 some games, compared to the 12 he played in China. He also would be accustomed to the pressure if he had played in the NCAA tournament with SMU and the pressure that the media puts on special players like Mudiay. But, the college game just isn't what it used to be. Earlier this week, NBA owner Mark Cuban said that college basketball is "Uglier than ugly" and "It is worse than high school basketball". Even Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has recently criticized the men's game by saying, "Watching it, it's a joke. There's only like 10 teams, you know, out of 25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you'd like to watch." Auriemma also said that the game is "behind the times". With college basketball having a hard time adapting to new times, we might be seeing more players choosing to go overseas and get paid instead of going through a season with the same amount of hard work without pay. In order to preserve the college game, it is necessary that the NCAA and schools look into providing more benefits to players or the college game will miss out on more players like Emmanuel Mudiay.