Gators Will Have To Wait For Tre Mann Decision

For those waiting on Tre Mann to make a decision, well, you’re likely going to have to wait a lot longer.

The NCAA came out with a release on Thursday saying the new deadline for a player to withdraw from the draft and return to college is August 3rd or 10 days after the NBA has a draft combine—whichever comes first. The first question will be “when is the NBA draft combine?” To which case the answer is that it’s yet to be set. The NBA has been frantically trying to put together a return to play plan and everything related to the draft has been put on the back burner and for that reason it’s entirely unknown when a combine could be.

An adaptation the NBA made for the pre-draft process due to COVID-19 is that teams were only allowed to speak to prospects and they weren’t allowed to work them out remotely. Furthermore, they weren’t even allowed to request film of a player working out. For that reason one of the main reasons a college player would want to go through the draft process was taken away. Going through workouts and gaining feedback from NBA front offices has been a big reason that players have wanted to enter the draft and with that process taken away you have seen some players withdraw earlier than you would normally see.

However, some players are holding out hope that things will change and in-person workouts will still be allowed. At the time of the NBA announcing workouts wouldn’t be allowed practice facilities were mandated to be shut down, something that has since changed. Teams were able to open practice facilities as soon as May 8th, and every single team (other than the San Antonio Spurs) is going to have theirs open by June 4th. That leaves a large window for teams to be able to welcome in perspective players—should it be allowed.

It’s rumored that a big reason Tre Mann wanted to enter the draft was to have the opportunity to work out with teams. Given the news that the deadline was extended and the glimmer of hope workouts will happen due to practice facilities opening it’s likely he’s going to continue to wait things out and that means Gator may have a long wait on their hands.

From what’s out there it’s still expected that he’s going to return to Gainesville for his sophomore season so the long wait to find out Mann’s intentions shouldn’t mean he’s on his way out. Quite frankly, there is no real advantage to him making his decision now given that he has two more months to decide. That may make for a bit of stress among fans and the coaching staff but he’s taking advantage of the rules to the best of his ability, something you can’t fault him for.

If the NBA were to hold a combine (something that still seems unlikely) Mann almost certainly wouldn’t receive an invitation, so that isn’t really an event to keep an eye on. The only reason to make note of it would be in case it triggers the “10 days after” rule for players to make their decision but there isn’t much optimism that the combine will happen anyways.

Florida’s offseason has already had some twists and turns and unexpected decisions and it looks like Mann will be the last player Gator fans have to keep an eye on.