What Will Jodie Do?

The lingering question on most Kentucky fans these days is "what will Jodie Meeks do?" Meeks, Kentucky's All-American scoring machine last season, has a little less than ten days to decide on returning to Kentucky or staying in the NBA Draft. The deadline to make the decision is 5:00 p.m. on June 15th.

The prevailing feeling around Kentucky circles is that Meeks is leaning towards staying in the draft. He has stated in interviews that he has thoroughly enjoyed flying from city-to-city during his NBA pre-draft workouts and the lifestyle is really growing on him.

He is currently being projected anywhere from a late first-rounder to not being selected - at all. The majority feels that Jodie will likely go in the early- to mid-second round. The NBA Draft Express site projected Meeks as the 44th overall pick following his performance at the NBA combine. With the varying range of opinions on Meeks, it is hard to get a solid grasp on where he may be selected.

Meeks has stated that if he finds a guarantee of being selected in the first round, he is going to stay in the draft. If he fails to get that guarantee, he will likely return to Kentucky. The better question may be: "what will the NBA GM's do?"

My Thoughts: My head tells me that Jodie has made the internal decision that he wants to go to the NBA and is likely going to convince himself that he is going to be a first rounder. My heart tells me that he will be back at Kentucky and help lead the Wildcats to the Final Four. For Jodie's sake, I hope he listens to solid advice from trustworthy sources. There are no guarantees for second round picks, which makes this a life-altering decision for Meeks. I wish him the best.

My official prediction: Jodie Meeks will withdraw from the draft and return to Kentucky.