Bradley Beal thinking NCAA, not NBA
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 | Baseball, Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The biggest game of his life is Friday, but there was Florida guard Bradley Beal fielding the inevitable questions Friday about a certain game he'll be playing in the future.
The one in the NBA.
“I have no clue,” Beal said when asked what he intended to do at the end of his 2011-12 freshman season. “I haven't even really thought about it at all.”
Give Beal credit for saying all the right things. The fab freshman from St. Louis -- the Gators' best player who is peaking at the right time -- will have a big decision to make when UF's season is done.
For now, though, the 6-foot-4, 207-pound swingman and former McDonald's All-American is psyched for his first taste of the NCAA Tournament, with the 25th-ranked Gators (23-10) facing Virginia (22-9) in Friday's opening round action of the West Region at Omaha, Neb.
“It's real exciting,” Beal said. “The SEC tournament was just a glimpse of what the NCAA tournament is going to be like. I'm pretty sure it's going to be more competitive and teams are going to be ready to play. I'm really looking forward to everything.”
Part of that “everything” is the media crush. Beal can bet that during pre-tournament press conferences Thursday at Century Link Center -- about a six-hour drive Chaminade High, where Beal was Gatorade's 2011 National High School Player of the Year -- he will be hit with questions gauging his NBA interest (undeclared) and his current stock on NBA draft boards (high).
Virtually every mock draft on the Internet has Beal slotted as a lottery pick, with comparisons ranging from Ray Allen to Eric Gordon to even an old-schooler I ran into on the road with the Gators who compared Beal to Mitch Ritchmond.
ESPN NBA analyst Chad Ford includes underclassmen in his projected draft pool. Ford currently has Beal as the No. 6 overall prospect. He broke down the UF star's game like so: 
Positives:
Amazing shooter
Deep range on his jumper
Clutch shooter, fearless
High basketball IQ
Good athlete
Good ball-handler
Can play the point
Good defender
Negatives:
Undersized for the two-guard position
Maybe be a bit of a tweener
It was about six weeks ago that stories were being written about Beal's struggles with his transition from high school to college; about his shooting percentage; his turnovers on the road. Yada, yada.
All the stuff that constitutes growing pains for a freshman.
In Saturday's 74-71 loss to No. 1 Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals, Beal scored 20 points (on 8-for-15 shooting from the floor and 4-for-7 from the arc) and led the team in rebounds (8), assists (5) and steals (tied with 1).
Right now, Beal ranks second on the team in scoring (14.6 points per game) and first in rebounding from his guard spot (6.5). He's averaging 2.1 assists per game, 1.4 steals, shooting 42.8 percent from the floor and 77.5 from the free-throw line.
This just in: He's really good, he's playing at altogether different level -- and with a different air of confidence -- than a month ago, and he's certainly ready as far as the NBA is concerned.
It'll come down to whether Beal, who doesn't turn 19 until June, thinks he's ready to take that next step.
“Right now, I don't know,” he said. “I haven't put too much thought into it. When that time comes I'm going to talk to Coach [Billy] Donovan and my family and we're going to have to sit down and talk about it. When that time comes, it comes.”
The options leave him a win-win dilemma.
“Most definitely. Either way it goes,” Beal said. “If I leave, I still played a great year of college. I enjoyed it. If I stay, it's only going to make me get better. Either way it goes, I'm gaining something positive out of it.”
