Connecticut junior guard Ben Gordon will forgo his final season of NCAA eligibility and enter the upcoming 2004 NBA draft. Gordon made the announcement at a Wednesday press conference on the University of Connecticut campus. He ends his collegiate career on a high note after capturing the national championship with a victory over Georgia Tech. Gordon has a career scoring average of 16.9 points per game.
“Coming into the season, I knew that I wanted this to be my last year,” Gordon announced at his press conference. “I wanted to win a championship, and I had those goals set. Throughout the course of the season a lot of different things happened where I had to question if I could leave or not. Just the run that my team and I went on, it was a pretty easy decision for me.”
A native of Mount Vernon, N.Y., the 6-foot-3 Gordon appeared in each of Connecticut’s 106 games over his three-year career, making a total of 74 starts. He holds the school record for career 3-point field goals with 246. Former Husky star and Minnesota Timberwolves draft pick Chris Smith held the previous mark of 242. In 2003, his final season in Storrs, Gordon averaged 18.5 points per contest, in addition to 4.5 assists and 4.7 rebounds. For his efforts, he was named to the All-Big East first team.
“The three years I’ve spent here has helped me a lot,” Gordon said. “Coming from Mount Vernon to Storrs was a really big culture shock. At first it was hard for me to deal with, and meeting new kinds of people, and the everyday life up here. After I adjusted to that, it made me a more well-rounded person because I adjusted to the city life and then I came up here and got familiar with lots of people I wasn’t used to back home. Just the relationships I’ve built in three years and the people I’ve met have really made me a better person.”
In his career, he has scored in double figures 88 times, and tallied more than 20 points 39 times. Gordon would prefer to play close to home but simply wants to contribute as a rookie.
“I wanted to play for the Knicks just because it’s at home and everything like that,” Gordon said of his professional preferences. “But I really just want to go to a team where I’ll make an instant impact.”
The 2004 draft will be held Thursday, June 24, at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun supported Gordon in his decision.
“Our university has been blessed to have Ben for three years,” Calhoun said. “He is everything you’d want a student athlete to be, he’s been everything you’d want a person to be, he’s been everything a teammate that you’d want him to be, and he’s really just one special young guy. I think that this opportunity right now, given the world we live in, he’d be quite frankly foolish not to take advantage of this incredible opportunity.”
–compiled from staff reports
