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    Villanova remains 2021 NCAA Tournament co-favorite despite officially losing Saddiq Bey to NBA Draft

    As expected, Villanova star forward Saddiq Bey will keep his name in the 2020 NBA Draft.
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    With all of the NBA schedule changes due to the coronavirus, the NCAA has altered the drop-dead date of when underclassmen can still withdraw from the 2020 draft. It had been June 3 but now will be either Aug. 3 or 10 days after the draft combine, whichever comes first – it's rather unlikely there will be a combine because of the pandemic.

    One expected first-round pick is Villanova's Saddiq Bey, and he is not waiting for the new deadline to make a decision about his future as Bey said Tuesday he will sign with an agent and thus officially forgo his final two seasons with the Wildcats.

    This is frankly not unexpected as Bey could be a lottery pick in the 2020 draft, which has been rescheduled for Oct. 15 – opposite a Chiefs-Bills Thursday night NFL game.

    As a sophomore in the 2019-20 campaign, the 6-foot-8, 220-pound Bey won the Julius Erving Award as the nation's top small forward. He also was first-team All-Big East in averaging 16.1 points and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting a stellar 45.1 percent from deep, which was fourth in the nation. He's a prototypical 3-and-D wing whom NBA teams covet.

    Bey, who was just 5-foot-8 as a high school freshman (he was a three-star recruit), has been compared to current NBA players like Tobias Harris and Jae Crowder.

    William Hill oddsmakers still have Villanova as a co-favorite at +1000 on the moneyline odds to win the 2021 national championship along with Duke and Gonzaga – the oddsmakers basically assumed that Bey was not going to return. Villanova returns 83.1 percent of its minutes from last year's 24-7 team that was peaking entering the Big East Tournament.

    The Wildcats will be a Top 5 team in all the preseason polls, and CBS Sports' Gary Parrish lists the Cats at No. 3 in his Top 25 and 1, behind only Gonzaga and Baylor. 

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    SportsLine Staff

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