? Evan Burns ?

After his soap opera with UCLA, Burns wound up at San Diego State and since then, he has been forgotten. The athletic wing didn’t look like the high school player that considered making the jump to the league he once was. But now that he has tasted college basketball, it is ultimately up to Burns to determine what he wants to do with his future. After getting into a scoring duel with New Mexico’s Ruben Douglas last year, (Burns had 31 while Douglas dropped 43), the freshman started to put it all together. He needs more challenges and doesn’t get enough in the Mountain West.

In evaluating some of this season's top underclassmen who are still weighing their NBA draft options, it's important to recall the story of Evan Burns. Burns was a 6-foot-8 wing who was a surefire NBA three-man. In fact, he was rated ahead of Carmelo Anthony (and behind Lenny Cooke, who has a similar tale of woe) by several high school scouting services.

Burns originally was planning to attend UCLA, but he needed to take some summer school classes to complete his core requirements to get eligible. Midway through the summer, he decided that UCLA expected too much of him academically, so he enrolled at San Diego State.

Burns became the freshman of the year in the Mountain West Conference -- and he wasn't even a starter for most of the year. He poured in 32 points against future NBA first-round pick Danny Granger and New Mexico.

With his grades in disarray, though, he began working on making the jump to the NBA. But after tearing his ACL in the spring and then flunking out of school by summer, Burns was left to rehab his injury on his own. He decided to take a year off and enter the draft in 2004, but he still wasn't ready and ended up in the 2005 draft, where he went unselected.

rydjorker121 wrote:I don't know much about him, but after doing some research, it seems that he rushed entering the draft due to his bad grades (and later his injury), and that ultimately led to him being undrafted.

After his soap opera with UCLA, Burns wound up at San Diego State and since then, he has been forgotten. The athletic wing didn’t look like the high school player that considered making the jump to the league he once was. But now that he has tasted college basketball, it is ultimately up to Burns to determine what he wants to do with his future. After getting into a scoring duel with New Mexico’s Ruben Douglas last year, (Burns had 31 while Douglas dropped 43), the freshman started to put it all together. He needs more challenges and doesn’t get enough in the Mountain West.

In evaluating some of this season's top underclassmen who are still weighing their NBA draft options, it's important to recall the story of Evan Burns. Burns was a 6-foot-8 wing who was a surefire NBA three-man. In fact, he was rated ahead of Carmelo Anthony (and behind Lenny Cooke, who has a similar tale of woe) by several high school scouting services.

Burns originally was planning to attend UCLA, but he needed to take some summer school classes to complete his core requirements to get eligible. Midway through the summer, he decided that UCLA expected too much of him academically, so he enrolled at San Diego State.

Burns became the freshman of the year in the Mountain West Conference -- and he wasn't even a starter for most of the year. He poured in 32 points against future NBA first-round pick Danny Granger and New Mexico.

With his grades in disarray, though, he began working on making the jump to the NBA. But after tearing his ACL in the spring and then flunking out of school by summer, Burns was left to rehab his injury on his own. He decided to take a year off and enter the draft in 2004, but he still wasn't ready and ended up in the 2005 draft, where he went unselected.