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Deacs await guard's choice
Will Teague stay in NBA Draft?
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Published: June 15, 2009
Jeff Teague, by nature, doesn't reveal much. The trait apparently runs in his family.
Teague must decide by 5 p.m. today whether he will remain in the NBA Draft or return to Wake Forest for his junior season. His father, Shawn Teague, said he doesn't expect to know what Jeff will do until right before the deadline.
"We're still just waiting until that deadline, trying to get a little more feedback from some of the GMs, and just kind of take it from there," Shawn Teague said Friday. "I think it's going to all hit heavy on the 15th, because that's when we're going to make that decision.
"The only thing I can say is that the 15th, it tells it all."
Coach Dino Gaudio said that no one at Wake Forest knows what to expect.
"Honestly, we don't," Gaudio said. "Obviously we'll know something (today) at 5 o'clock."
At stake for the Deacons is whether or not they will have one of the best players in the ACC back. Teague, a 6-2 guard from Indianapolis, averaged 18.8 points last season and made second-team All-ACC with the sixth-most votes overall.
Teague and sophomore James Johnson made themselves available after the season, which ended with the 24-7 Deacons losing to Cleveland State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But while Johnson hired an agent, Teague chose to leave himself the option of returning to Wake Forest.
Teague worked out for the New Jersey Nets on Saturday and the Philadelphia 76ers yesterday, his first workouts since he strained his medial collateral ligament early in a workout session for the Minnesota Timberwolves on June 3. Shawn Teague said that the injury will not necessarily effect his son's decision.
"He's been doing a lot of drill work, not necessarily contact stuff," Shawn Teague said. "He's been doing that, and it's been going pretty good."
Teague has been ranked as high as 10th among mock drafts found on Internet Web sites, but most rank him about 19th or 20th. He has impressed NBA general managers and their staffs with his speed, quickness and wingspan.
Shawn Teague declined to specify what would persuade his son to remain in the draft.
"I know there are no guarantees no matter what you say or what they say," Shawn Teague said. "They start making those picks and certain guys get pushed back and things happen. A whole lot of things can happen.
"We've just got to take the information that we have and just hope we make the best decision for him. Either way, I think it's a pretty good situation. We just want to look at it and take it from there."
Asked if his son had his heart set on entering the NBA this season, Shawn Teague said only that Jeff's heart was set on doing as well as he could during the tryouts.
"I know going into the process, we wanted to and he wanted to give 100 percent," Shawn Teague said.
"His whole aim is to do just that. There's no sense of putting his name in a hat when you're giving a half-hearted effort. We wanted to make sure he was 100 percent committed to it.
"This is an opportunity and a dream for so many young men."
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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