Sasser withdraws from NBA draft, will return to Houston

By Tyler Tyre, Sports Editor
Posted 6/4/22

“This was just the best choice for me to come back,” Sasser said. It won’t do anything but help me even more. It’s going to help me become a better player all-around and just be even more prepared for the draft process next year.”

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Sasser withdraws from NBA draft, will return to Houston

Posted

“Houston, we got unfinished business.”

It was the words every University of Houston fan had hoped to hear over the past few months. What every player on the Houston basketball coaching staff had been counting on to put the Cougars back in the mix of the national championship race heading into next year.

Marcus Sasser, a senior point guard and one of the leaders of the Cougars locker room, announced Thursday that he was withdrawing his name from the NBA draft and announcing he would return to the school for his senior season.

“Going into the process I just wanted to be 100% sure and not have any doubt that I would get drafted,” Sasser said. “I only wanted to stay in if there was no doubt I would get drafted, but there was some doubt. So it wasn’t a hard choice for me, I knew I needed to come back to school, the University of Houston is where I need to be.”

Sasser was limited to just 12 games in his junior season, but showed he was among the elite in the nation by averaging 17.7 points, 2.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game while shooting 43% from the field and 43% from three point land, before having to miss time due to a broken bone in his foot. Houston head coach Kelvin Samposn will count on Sasser as one of his top producers next season and both are excited about the reunion.

With the final four heading to Houston next year, the only goal on both of their minds is making it there and competing for a national championship.

“He’s happy for me and I’m just happy to be back,” Sasser said. “It’s definitely a good player-coach relationship and I’m just excited about the final four being in Houston and me coming back. I just want to make sure we are playing in that final four and we’re both excited to get started working again.”

Along with competing for a national championship, Sasser will be looking to improve on certain areas of his game to make sure his name is called in next year’s NBA draft, as a big part of going through the combine and individual workouts for him this year was finding out what NBA scouts thought about his game.

“They like me as a floor spacer and being able to knock down shots on the perimeter as well as my on ball defense,” Sasser said. “My playmaking ability is getting better but they want to see it at a higher level. And they want to see me be more of that leader and alpha dog with my team. There’s just a few things that I know that I need to work on, but I got a lot of good feedback from a lot of the teams.”

But ultimately, the biggest reason for Sasser decided come back is wanting to win and making the right decision for himself.

“This was just the best choice for me to come back,” Sasser said. It won’t do anything but help me even more. It’s going to help me become a better player all-around and just be even more prepared for the draft process next year.”

University of Houston, basketball, NCAA, sports, NCAA Tournament, Marcus Sasser