Josh Shipp is returning to UCLA for his senior season. He withdrew his name from the NBA Draft today and told coach Ben Howland he will be back next season for the Bruins.
“We don’t get to the Final Four each of the last two years or win Pac-10 championships without Josh,” Howland said on a teleconference this afternoon. “Josh is an integral part of that. No question.”
Shipp was the only Bruin to start all 39 games last year, a school record, and averaged 12.2 points and 2.1 assists per game.
“I am glad I went through this process. It gave me the opportunity to get input and prepare my body and my game for the next level,” Shipp said in a release.
More telling than Shipp’s announcement that he will be returning is the speculation by Howland that Alfred Aboya will also rerturn for his senior year giving the Bruins three seniors on next year’s team.
“I’m pretty confident he’ll be back,” Howland said.
Darren Collison, Aboya and Shipp would all be seniors. If Luc Ricahrd Mbah a Moute decides to come back, that would give Howland four seasoned seniors on his team.
But Moute is still working out with NBA teams and probably won’t make a decision about making himself eligible for the draft until Monday.