Georges Niang, Taurean Prince and other Big 12 seniors return with more to prove

Last season, the Big 12 was often heralded as the top conference in the nation. The league finished with the highest adjusted rating, according to KenPom, and was comprised of numerous top 25 quality teams including Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

However, despite the accolades, the Big 12 stumbled mightily in the NCAA Tournament. The Bears and Cyclones were silenced by a pair of No. 14 seeds and the Jayhawks followed them into the offseason after losing to Wichita State in the round of 32. Oklahoma managed to make the second weekend before falling to Tom Izzo’s Spartans.

The early tournament defeats signaled a potential exodus of talent from the conference. All of the previously mentioned squads contained at least one junior with the potential to be selected in the 2015 NBA Draft. However, in a statistically unlikely turn of events, all five of those players — Baylor’s Rico Gathers and Taurean Prince, Iowa State’s Georges Niang, Kansas’ Perry Ellis and Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield — elected to return to school for their senior seasons. The returns set the stage for a more optimistic 2015-16 season in the Big 12 with each senior looking to convince the country that last year’s regular season success was no fluke.

In addition to aiming for team accolades, the Big 12’s senior class will be looking to prove themselves individually ahead of next June’s 2016 NBA Draft. At the moment, draft analysts don’t appear to have much faith in this group of players as NBA prospects. Only two — Hield and Prince — appear in Draft Express’ early 2016 Mock Draft. Prince, likely the most unknown of the players to the casual fan, is the only Big 12 senior pegged to slip into the first round.

Prince’s rise on draft boards is well justified. Advanced statistics love the San Antonio native. He finished last season with a 25.6 PER and an 11.7 box plus/minus. The Baylor wing is one of the few Big 12 seniors who has the prototypical size often required to make it in the NBA. At a lanky 6-7 with a 6-11 wingspan, Prince fits well into the physical mold of an NBA wing. His skill set is rather adaptable to the modern NBA, too. Over 147 attempts last season, Prince knocked down 40.1 percent of his 3-pointers. He has also had success on the defensive end where he ranked 15th in the Big 12 in block percentage and fourth in the league in steal percentage. Assuming Prince can continue to improve his jumper and that his defense will translate at the next level, he may fill in nicely as a role playing 3-and-D wing.

The remaining players all suffer from the same problem — their physical profile doesn’t match up with their positional profile in the NBA. While Hield is an explosive scorer with the ability to run the break in transition, he’s only 6-4 and may struggle to find shooting space against larger players. Niang and Ellis are both versatile forwards, but neither of them has the athleticism to play on the wing in the NBA. Still, with the league’s transition to more four-out offenses, Niang and Ellis might be valuable bench options because of their ability to handle the ball, shoot from outside and make passes to open teammates on the wing. Gathers, meanwhile, is a physical specimen. Despite standing just 6-8, he was one of the top rebounders in the NCAA last season.

The members of the Big 12’s returning senior class all have something to offer NBA teams, whether it be explosive scoring, impressive versatility, or smash mouth rebounding. However, the majority of them lack the prototypical size for their position. In truth, many of these players will go undrafted in 2016, but they’ll get opportunities to establish themselves with Summer League programs and may find their way onto NBA rosters.

First, though, they’ll look to avenge last season’s NCAA Tournament defeats.