With the draft deadline having passed and many portal decisions also having been made, offseason assessments are starting to come out around college basketball. That includes the latest from ‘The Field of 68’ today in naming two winners out of the Southeastern Conference.
Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster named several winners and losers during their latest episode this morning. Among two early winners, at least based on the news regarding draft withdrawals last week, were Alabama and Kentucky following the respective returns of Labaron Philon and Otega Oweh.
For Philon (10.6 points (45.2% FG, 31.5% 3PT), 3.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 1.4 steals), Goodman broke down the draft positioning for him had he remained in as originally planned. He, in returning to Tuscaloosa, could now improve his stock into being a lottery selection rather than just a borderline first-round pick, making all the money that comes with that rise, after another season playing for and earning from the Crimson Tide.
“I mean, huge…Obviously, these guys are realizing, hey, if we’re not lock first-rounders, which Yaxel (Lendeborg at Michigan) wasn’t and Labaron certainly wasn’t, there’s more money on the table to go back. And, for Labaron, I think a big part of it too was not only go back for the money now. Go back for the opportunity to put yourself where you are potentially a lottery pick next year,” said Goodman. “Right now, I think he was outside the first round. I think he was somewhere in that 25 to 45 range from what NBA execs had told me. And, I think he’s the type of guy that could really improve his draft stock enough to be a lock first-rounder, maybe even a late lottery pick.”
As for Dauster, Philon coming back was the biggest outcome of the draft deadline, if for no other than reason than the shock of it. That then leads to the effect it’ll have on Alabama with his return taking the Tide from just a team in the Top-25 or so to one in the Top-10 to Top-15.
“To me, the single biggest piece of news, and probably the biggest surprise of the entire draft cycle to me, was Labaron Philon – out of nowhere, 30 minutes before the deadline passed – having an announcement,” said Dauster. “It’s not just the money situation, right…Labaron Philon is one of these guys where, if it clicks for him, he’s got, like, lottery potential next season if it all goes well, and I do believe it’ll go well for him at Alabama.”
“I think it was a good move for Labaron to come back to school and I think it’s massive for Alabama. Huge. One of the, kind of, underrated storylines was I thought that Alabama had, like, a quietly disappointing offseason, right. You’re losing Mark Sears, you’re losing a couple of veteran pieces and they didn’t exactly kill it in the portal…There wasn’t a lot on this roster that really kind of made you say oh, wow, like, you’ve got to look out for this team. And, that wouldn’t have been a problem but Alabama and Nate Oats have set the expectation that, like, competing for national championships in ‘hoops is what they do now, right. If you’re kind of like a Top-20ish, Top-25ish kind of a team in Alabama? That’s one where it’s like, eh, what’s happening here? Getting Philon back changes some things because I think he is a guy that has, like, legitimate All-SEC potential,” Dauster said. “To me, he really changes things for Alabama in terms of what their ceiling can be if this all clicks and if this all hits.”
A few minutes later, Dauster and Goodman also got to Oweh (16.2 points (49.2% FG, 35.5% 3PT), 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.6 steals), who also pulled his name out of the draft to come back to Lexington. Neither of them thought his return was necessarily as impactful of that for Philon. That said, with him coming back as a candidate for SEC Player of the Year or as an All-American, it’s one that they thought does take the Wildcats into the debate of if they could be Preseason No. 1 for ’24-’25.
“I will say this about Kentucky, right. Like, I don’t think Oweh coming back has anywhere near the impact on what Kentucky’s season could be as Philon coming back does for Alabama or (Tahaad) Pettiford coming back does for Auburn. I think it takes both of those teams from borderline, Top-25ish, if that, to Top-10 to 15 in the country, right. Whereas, with Kentucky, I think that getting Oweh takes them from being, like, a Top-8 to 10 team in America to, like, we’ve really got to have a conversation about whether or not this team could be the No. 1 team, could be the best team in college basketball,” said Dauster. “I think it’s still probably Purdue, Houston, Florida to me in that order but I don’t think you can have the conversation of who is the best team in college basketball without having Kentucky in that conversation.”
“I’m not ready to say that yet but, maybe. I mean, again, I think they’ve got the depth that those other teams don’t have. But, when you’re talking about the Top-7, I’m not sure,” said Goodman. Like, they’re in the mix, I guess. I don’t think they’re in the mix for the preseason number one, for me, but they’re somewhere from four to eight. And, again, it’s going to be figuring out role allocation for them and, you know, to me, up front, I think it’s going to be huge for them, is how they figure that part out.”
Philon and Oweh give Alabama and Kentucky, two of the best teams in the league and nation last season, a pair of guards who could be all-conference players and among the better ones in the entire sport. That’s more than enough for ‘The Field of 68’ to include both the Crimson Tide and Wildcats as offseason winners going into the summer and ahead of next season.
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