Iowa's Luka Garza Decides to Return for Senior Season

Luka Garza, the Big Ten and national Player of the Year in 2020, has decided to withdraw from the NBA draft process and return to Iowa for one more run.

Iowa's Luka Garza, the Big Ten's player of the year last season, announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from the NBA Draft process and will return to the Hawkeyes for the 2020-21 season.

Garza entered the draft process hoping to work out for NBA teams and get some feedback on his status. But the COVID-19 pandemic limited him to video conferences.

He was invited to the NBA Draft combine, but no date has been set for that. Taking those factors into consideration, Garza decided to return.

"It's been really strange, and very difficult, especially with COVID-19, and that added a lot of uncertainty to what I had to decide," Garza said during a video conference with reporters. "But at the end of the day, I felt very confident that I wanted to come back and finish my career at the University of Iowa.''

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery was glad that Garza at least went through the process.

"Luka is a big-picture guy. He looked at everything, and I encouraged him to look at everything.

"The important thing, I think, was that he felt good about going through the process the way he did, that he felt like he had done his homework. That was important to me as well."

Monday was the NCAA deadline to withdraw from the draft. The NBA's deadline is Aug. 17, but Garza said his decision will stand.

Now Garza returns to a team that will be a serious contender for the Big Ten title. All five starters are back from a 20-win team that likely would have made the NCAA tournament last season.

"It would be one of the best teams I've ever played for," said Garza, who was selected the national player of the year by six outlets last season. "I wanted to come back and make sure I was part of something special."

For the complete story from Sports Illustrated Iowa's John Bohnenkamp, CLICK HERE