3:09pm: Wallace has formally announced his decision to pass up the draft, as the school tweets (hat tip to Rothstein).
2:53pm: Second-round prospect Tyrone Wallace will return to Cal rather than enter this year’s draft, sources told Jon Rothstein of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). There’s a wide disparity on just what sort of NBA player Wallace projects to become, as the junior combo guard is 34th in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect rankings and No. 63 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
The 6’5″ Wallace was fourth in the Pac-12 in points per game this season at 17.1, but he led the conference in total turnovers with 94, a figure that worked out to 3.3 a game. Wallace endured a heavy workload that saw him take 14.8 shots and dish out 4.0 assists in 34.9 minutes per contest. He excels on defense, as Ford writes in his scouting report, pointing to inconsistency as his primary flaw. Wallace isn’t a strong outside shooter, making only 31.8% of his three-point attempts this season and 29.1% for his college career.
The 20-year-old, who turns 21 in June, showed steady improvement during his time at Cal, and he improved his stock after he was only 94th in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index coming out of high school. Givony’s ranking suggests the first round isn’t out of reach in 2016, and he’ll be relatively young for a senior, turning 22 only weeks before next year’s draft.