Rival Views: Most important decision to return to school

The Wednesday deadline for college underclassmen to either stay in or withdraw from the NBA Draft has come and gone. Which player's decision to return to school will have the most impact on the 2017-18 season and beyond? National analysts Eric Bossi and Corey Evans debate in this week's Rival Views.

MORE: Bossi's Best - Memorable five-star recruitments

There were certainly several other viable choices, and I almost went with UCLA getting back the experience and scoring of Thomas Welsh and Aaron Holiday. However, the Bruins at least had a loaded recruiting class to fall back on if Welsh, Holiday or both left. In Ann Arbor, things could have been looking bleak had the 6-foot-10 Wagner joined fellow big man D.J. Wilson in electing to remain in the Draft.

A product of Germany who came on strong at the end of the year, Wagner is a highly skilled big with growing strength. Had he joined Wilson in leaving for the 2017 NBA Draft, the Wolverines would have been looking at rolling out an interior group of sophomore Jon Teske, redshirt freshman Austin Davis and freshman Isaiah Livers, who accounted for a total of five points in 2016-17.

After scoring 12 points and grabbing four rebounds per game last season, Wagner looks to be in line for a huge jump and could be an All-Big Ten kind of player as a junior.

Moving ahead, I would expect Michigan to really turn up their efforts with Canadian four-star combo forward Ignas Brazdeikis. He's a high skill/versatile forward who fits the Wolverines' style of play, and academically there is a chance that he could actually enroll as a 2017 prospect, which could be hugely beneficial if the Wolverines were able to land him.

Michigan is also firmly in the mix -- and possibly even leads for -- top 50 class of 2018 forward Pete Nance, who is the son of former NBA player Larry Nance and the younger brother of current Los Angeles Laker Larry Nance Jr. It's going to be really important to land one or both of these guys for 2018-19 and beyond, because it's hard to imagine Wagner being back as a senior (assuming he continues to improve). But in the short run, a crisis looks to have been averted in Ann Arbor.

Maryland was already behind the eight ball entering the 2017-2018 college basketball season thanks to the departure of All-Big Ten lead guard Melo Trimble. Thankfully for Terps fans, freshman forward Justin Jackson, who averaged 10.5 points and six rebounds per game in 2016-2017, decided to return to College Park, giving Mark Turgeon’s program much needed star power that would have been lacking.

Jackeson wowed NBA personnel at the combine last month with elite numbers including a 7-foot-3 wingspan. Couple that with his nearly 44 percent three-point shooting numbers during his freshman campaign and Jackson became a prime candidate to be taken in the first round of June’s draft as a small ball power forward.

Jackson’s NBA Draft stock should continue to improve with another year of seasoning in college. While there will be much said about the talented cupboard of talent at Michigan State entering the new college basketball season, Jackson has the chance to push the Terps back into the upper echelon of the Big Ten. Seeing that there is no one on Maryland’s roster that can do the things that Jackson can do, the loss of the former four-star forward would have been felt severely. Instead, he should team up alongside classmates Kevin Huerter and Anthony Cowan, along with incoming top-100 freshmen Darryl Morsell and Bruno Fernando, in establishing the Terps as another high-seed tournament team come next March.