Investing in patience pays off.(College Football)

Good thing Ryan Gomes showed up in Chicago for the NBA predraft camp instead of Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. He did well enough at basketball but would have gotten creamed playing "No Limit Texas Hold 'em." In a conversation midway through the camp, Gomes revealed with his eyes and smile precisely what his play would be: another year at Providence.

If that is bad news for Big East teams that struggled to defend him--yes, even defending national champion Connecticut--it is a terrific outcome not just for the Friars but for college basketball.

The 2004-05 season will feature numerous incumbent stars. Gomes and Mississippi State's Lawrence Roberts, who also pulled out of the draft, were first-team All-Americans last season, according to the United States Basketball Writers Association. Only one other time since 1991-92 have two USBWA All-Americans returned (Jay Williams and Casey Jacobsen came back for the 2001-02 season).

N.C. State's Julius Hodge, a first-team SPORTING NEWS All-American, also will return in 2004-05. And Oklahoma State's John Lucas, North Carolina's Rashad McCants, Syracuse's Hakim Warrick and Kansas' Wayne Simien will play at the college level again after gaining national honors last season.

Many college players heeded advice from NBA teams and scouts to wait for 2005, when their talents might be valued more fully because the draft field will be less crowded with elite high school prospects. It's not often we see this level of prudence from draft prospects. We have grown accustomed to watching the likes of Marcus Taylor, Rick Rickert, Omar Cook and Josh Powell blow promising futures on the basis of impatience, irrationality and misinformation.

After 17 players connected to Division I colleges met the deadline to withdraw from last week's draft, there were few such victims remaining on the 2004 early-entry list. Perhaps the only genuinely gifted player who took a reckless gamble was former UCLA forward Trevor Ariza. Sure, Delonte West might have developed into an early first-round pick in 2005 had he played a full year of point guard at Saint Joseph's, but at least he surrendered only one year of eligibility.

Players such as Charlotte center Martin Iti, Washington guard Nate Robinson and LSU forward Brandon Bass returned to school and avoided the possibility of wasting their talent.