It Was Nice While It Lasted: Xavier's Jordan Crawford Signs an Agent

After just one season with the Musketeers, Jordan Crawford will hire an agent and keep his name in the upcoming NBA draft. Crawford, who was a sophomore last year due to sitting out a season after transferring from Indiana University, led Xavier in scoring with 20.5 points a game.

He is currently projected to be an early second-round pick in this June’s draft.

It isn’t a huge surprise that Crawford decided to hire an agent, considering his stock is at an all-time high after his career high 32 point performance in the double overtime thriller against Kansas State in the team’s regional semifinal loss.

However, just because it isn’t a surprise, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a mistake.

Being a 21-year-old sophomore surely won’t help his draft stock, and being a 22-year-old junior wouldn’t have been to his benefit next season either; but Crawford clearly has a lot of holes in his games that could have used another season’s worth of work.

No one doubts the lanky guard's ability to score at will, and many even consider him to be one of the best pure scorers in the draft, but his "me first" style of play won’t transfer well into the NBA.

At the next level, Crawford isn't going to be able to dominate the ball like he did in college, and he is going to have to get used to playing a role while in the game.

He will also have to prove that size won't be an issue on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, where he won't only have to guard bigger defenders, but deal with the superior length of defenders at the top level.

He has proven to be easily flustered in the past, so this is something that will be a major concern moving forward.

Hopefully Crawford proves me wrong, and plays great in the NBA; I just wish he would have made a phone call to former Xavier forward Derrick Brown before making his decision.

That way he could hear what it’s like to be riding pine in the league while your alma mater is making a Sweet 16 run.