The Houston Cougars’ inaugural men’s basketball season in the Big 12 just received a huge boost with Wednesday’s announcement by point guard Jamal Shead that he has withdrawn his name from the 2023 NBA Draft and will return to school for his senior season.
Earlier this spring, Shead announced that he wanted to test the NBA waters, giving him the opportunity to participate in prospect camps and talk with NBA personnel, but with the option of returning to school as long as he didn’t hire an agent. Shead had until Wednesday to either withdraw his name or take his chances in the draft.
Now Shead is armed with the information about what aspects of his game need the most improvement to improve his value in the 2024 NBA Draft, and it’s likely the message was to improve his 3-point shooting after connecting on just 29% from behind the arc this past season.
Shead announced his decision to withdraw from the NBA Draft on his Twitter account with the statement, “When writing your story, don’t let anyone else hold the pen. This chapter has pages left to be written…”
Last season, Shead started 37 games for the Cougars and teamed with Marcus Sasser to form one of the most explosive backcourts in the nation. The duo led the Cougars to a No.1 ranking most of the season and pushed the Coogs to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament where their season ended in disappointment.
Initially, it looked like the Cougars had lost their four top players after the season with Sasser and freshman Jarace Walker also headed to the NBA and Tramon Mark deciding to move on from the program via the transfer portal. Shead is not the Cougars only top-four player coming back, although Kelvin Sampson has put together another strong recruiting class which should make the Cougars a team to watch during their first Big 12 season.
Shead averaged 10.5 points, 5.4 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals while shooting nearly 42% from the field last season.
#tobecontinued pic.twitter.com/tWvpZKFUq7
— Jamal shead (@Thejshead) May 31, 2023
