Garza Still Waiting To Make Decision

Iowa center will take all the time necessary before deciding whether to pull out of the NBA Draft process.

Luka Garza is sticking to his plan on when he will make the decision whether to return for his senior season at Iowa.

The 6-foot-11 center, a consensus All-American last season, said during a Facebook Live interview on Thursday night that he will make his decision on whether he is going to withdraw from the NBA Draft process on August 2, one day before the NCAA’s deadline to withdraw.

Garza has only been able to do video interviews with NBA teams because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are questions about how the upcoming college basketball season could look because of the pandemic.

Garza said he wants to “maximize my time” to make his decision.

“See if there’s any more announcements about anything that’s going to happen,” Garza said during his interview on the Iowa athletic department’s Facebook page, an event that included four other Hawkeyes who, like Garza, won Big Ten athlete of the year honors in their respective sports last season. “I have another interview set up, so I want to be able to do that. And then talk to my family and coaches, the people close to me, to make the decision possible.”

Garza elected to go through the draft process, but keep his eligibility to return if he didn’t find the right professional opportunity. If he comes back, the Hawkeyes will have five starters returning from a team that won 20 games last season and likely would have made the NCAA tournament had it not been cancelled because of the pandemic.

Garza said even though he has not been able to have individual workouts for NBA teams, he has appreciated the feedback.

“Honestly, I’ve (only) been able to do Zoom interviews, like this one here,” he said. “You just talk to different front offices and their personnel, what they think about me and what they perceive for my future as an NBA basketball player, and when the right time that is for me. So I’ve been able to do that with a lot of good teams, and I’ve learned a lot through this process, even though obviously I’m not face-to-face or working out with any of the teams. It’s definitely valuable to hear what they say and it’s definitely going to help me in the future.”

Iowa's Luka Garza will announce his decision on whether he is going to return for his senior season on August 2. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen for USA Today Sports)

Garza, who was named the national player of the year by six national outlets last season and was a consensus first-team All-American, averaged 26.2 points in Big Ten play, finishing the season with 16 consecutive conference games of 20 points or more.

He became Iowa's all-time single-season scorer with 740 points, averaging 23.9 points overall, last season.

Garza said he has spent the summer working on his three-point shot — he was third on the team with 39 three-pointers last season and third on the team in three-point percentage at .358.

“Every summer, I go into it trying to improve something else in my game,” Garza said. “This summer, a lot of the focus is on the three-point shot, as well as just getting quicker and faster, being able to defend at a higher level, especially the next level.

Garza has been back on campus since mid-June, and has been participating in team workouts that began this week. But he’s kept busy this summer.

“I always found a way to get some sort of workout in,” he said. “I definitely wasn’t taking any time off.”