Shortly after Thomas Welsh announced that he will return to the UCLA Basketball team, guard Aaron Holiday also made his decision to forego the NBA Draft and return.
The UCLA Basketball team continues to receive good news today as junior-to-be Aaron Holiday has announced that he will skip the 2017 NBA Draft and return to Westwood.
The news broke shortly after center Thomas Welsh had announced that he was returning to the Bruins for his senior season. Both Holiday and Welsh had until Wednesday, May 24 to decide if they were going to keep their names in the NBA Draft or return to school.
As many speculated, both players are coming back to Westwood and UCLA Basketball fans could not have been happier.
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If Holiday and Welsh had decided to give up their eligibility and stay in the draft, the Bruins would have lost seven total players from last season’s Sweet Sixteen team.
Isaac Hamilton and Bryce Alford are graduating while freshmen Lonzo Ball, TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu have hired agents and will stay in the draft.
Now that Welsh and Holiday are returning, the Bruins will have continuity from the 2016-17 season as well as senior leadership which will be needed as UCLA has six (and hopefully a seventh with MJ Walker) coming to UCLA in the fall.
Though Holiday came off the bench last season for Ball after starting the previous year, he was in many critic’s minds the best 6th man in the nation.
Holiday was one of the top five scorers on the team with 12.3 points per game. He also added 4.4 assists and 2.9 rebounds per contest.
And we're also thrilled to have Aaron Holiday returning for his junior campaign!#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/OTQTd89l4V
— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) May 23, 2017
Next: Thomas Welsh will return for his senior season
Holiday was definitely the spark UCLA needed off the bench in 2016-17 and should continue to bring that energy as a starter next season. Either way, UCLA is a stronger team with him and Bruin fans are rejoicing. Welcome back, Holiday!