
Wyoming Cowboys senior guard Hunter Maldonado has withdrawn from the 2022 NBA Draft and will return to the program. The team’s best player will return after leading the team last year to the 2022 NCAA Tournament First Four. While they ended up losing to the Indiana Hoosiers the season was still a massive success for Wyoming. Maldonado is using the extra year of eligibility granted to players because of the impact the Coronavirus had on the 2020-21 college basketball season.
Wyoming’s Hunter Maldonado has told @Stadium he will withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to the Cowboys.
Huge news for Wyoming.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 27, 2022
As a senior with the Wyoming Cowboys, Hunter Maldonado averaged 18.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. His assists per game and steals per game led the team last year while his points per game and rebounds per game finished second on the team. He paired those numbers with a field goal percentage of 49.5 percent and a three-point percentage of 25 percent. Wyoming is set to compete hard next year and get back to the NCAA Tournament in Maldonado’s final season of college basketball. The feedback he got from the 2022 NBA Draft process will be invaluable next season.
Back in the Brown & Gold.@therealhunter24 ?? pic.twitter.com/kUl681MIeJ
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) May 27, 2022
The Wyoming Cowboys are hoping to finish well enough this season to avoid the First Four and perhaps even make it past the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Getting Hunter Maldonado back on the roster will help accomplish these goals, and the team should be one of the early favorites to win the Mountain West. Despite going 25-9 last season they finished fourth and squeezed into the First Four. This year things could be different with more experience.