Seattle U Men's Hoops: Charles Garcia is a hot NBA prospect

The NBA will be well-represented at KeyArena again tonight.

No, the Sonics haven't come back.

Instead, NBA scouts are suddenly turning out in droves to see Seattle University junior forward Charles Garcia, whose team will play against Oakland University at 7:10 p.m.

The 6-9 ½, 230-pound Garcia is fifth in the NCAA Division I in scoring at 25.0 points per game, and sixth in rebounding (10.5).

He also may rank first in intrigue value for the NBA.

Garcia has gone from being a little-known player to a rebounding and scoring machine. He averaged just 12.3 points in about half-a-season last year at Riverside (Calif.) Community College before leaving the team to concentrate on academics.

Six NBA scouts attended Seattle U.'s 82-81 win over UC-Irvine Tuesday, and 10 watched a game earlier this month at UC-Davis. More are expected tonight, in part because Oakland (Mich.), the preseason favorite to win the Summit League, also has a potentially high draft pick in 6-11 center Keith Benson.

"That will be a good barometer," said Seattle U. coach Cameron Dollar, of Garcia facing Benson.

More than a few draft experts, however, have already decided that Garcia has what it takes to be a first-round pick as early as this June.

DraftExpress.com has Garcia projected as the No. 21 pick in its latest 2010 mock draft, and Yahoo.com recently quoted a Western Conference scout saying, "He's certainly the hot player of the moment. He could be a first-rounder. No one realized he was that good."

Garcia understands that sentiment, admitting he didn't anticipate putting up these kinds of numbers. According to ESPN.com, only two college players in the last decade, Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley, have finished a college season averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds per game.

"I never really expected this coming from my first year transferring from a junior college," Garcia said. "This is very surprising, most definitely."

Garcia, who only recently turned 20, says he has "definitely matured a lot" since coming to Seattle, but also credits being allowed greater freedom in Dollar's offense.

While listed as a forward, Garcia just as often plays guard, displaying ball-handling skills honed before he had a late growth spurt. That skill makes him particularly attractive to NBA scouts.

"He has an unbelievable ability to, off the dribble, get to the foul line," Dollar said. "And that's the stuff really good scorers are made of. I don't care what level you play at, if you can drive and finish with contact, that's a transferable skill."

Garcia has attempted 150 free throws so far, 51 more than anyone else in the nation.

As the biggest player on his teams late in high school and junior college, Garcia was mostly a prototypical back-to-the-basket post. And that's the role he was being recruited to fill at Washington.

As an assistant at Washington, Dollar helped recruit Garcia to the Huskies, who were looking for an experienced big man to replace Jon Brockman. Garcia signed a letter of intent with UW but, despite meeting NCAA eligibility requirements, was not admitted to the university. He then enrolled at Seattle U.

"We thought he would be a developing scorer on the low post," Dollar said. "I had no idea of his perimeter game."

The first hint Dollar had of Garcia's other skills came when Seattle U. players raved about the new guy's exploits in summer pickup games.

Soon after practices began, Dollar saw for himself that Garcia was a different, more complete player.

"As we kept watching him in the early parts of practice, and even in the first game, you could see that he had some talents on the perimeter that just had never been utilized," Dollar said. "So we just changed his position, basically, and the results are what the results are."

Garcia's transformation led Dollar to declare publicly, before he had played an official game at Seattle U., that he thought Garcia was the best NBA prospect in the state.

Garcia has made that bold proclamation look good.

The question now is whether Garcia might be so good that Seattle U. could lose him after just one season.

Garcia admits he'll think about declaring early after the season and says that the NBA "is definitely in my head."

"But it's still a long season," he added. "So I'm not really worried about it for right now."

Dollar saw Washington players such as Nate Robinson and Spencer Hawes leave early for the NBA, and said such decisions are part of college basketball.

"Scouts have been coming and they are definitely intrigued," Dollar said. "They are definitely watching."

Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com.