Doug McDermott has elected to return to Creighton for his senior season, forgoing the 2013 NBA draft, reports Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com. McDemott had been weighing his options for weeks, but ultimately decided not to let the perception that 2013's class is weak affect his decision.
"If I'm going to play in the NBA, I'm going to play this year or next year," McDermott said. "I'm not buying into the fact that I had to go this year because the draft was considered weaker. [Kyle Korver] told me that I'm going to have to beat out guys whether I'm a first-rounder or I wind up going in the second round."
McDermott had been ranked 39th on Jonathan Givony's big board at DraftExpress.com and 50th on Chad Ford's at ESPN.com.
Meanwhile, a prospect that ranks slightly ahead of McDermott on both boards (35th and 47th respectively) has officially entered the 2013 draft. Agent Pedja Materic announced (via Twitter) that French Guyana native Livio Jean-Charles will go pro.
Jean-Charles recently turned heads at the Nike Hoop Summit, scoring 27 points and grabbing 13 boards in the World team's victory over the U.S. The 19-year-old power forward was named MVP of the game.