So Leo Lyons is thinking about going pro…

No, that wasn’t the start to a joke that ends in something like, “Why the long face?” Leo Lyons is really thinking about going pro.

And why not? He’s had two good games – in a row! That’s surely enough to get some NBA scouts to forget the 9 minutes he played against Texas Tech or the three points and two rebounds he had at Mississippi State. Or even the one rebound he managed to grab against a monstrous Southern team.

You see where I’m going with this.

But for the second consecutive meeting between Lyons and the media in the last couple days, he proclaimed that he was thinking about foregoing his senior season to pursue professional opportunities. Or as he called it, “the NBA.”

“I’m not going to lie and say I’m coming back,” Lyons said. “I just have to do what’s best for me.”

I told Lyons that I had two words for him: Thomas Gardner.

Gardner left Mizzou with thoughts of being a first rounder dancing in his head. Gardner’s fault wasn’t his thinking, but whom he listened to. He had plenty of people around him, including his agent, who was a family friend or a relative or something, telling him that the NBA was looking for someone just like him. Those people were right. The Chicago Bulls were looking for someone just like him two years after the draft. Gardner busted his behind in the summer league and it earned him a bench seat for a couple weeks before they cut him to make room for Demetris Nichols, who is now in the D-League.

Now that’s living the dream.

There’s a rumor going around that Gardner might land on Orlando’s roster. I hope he does. I’m not a total hater.

I will say, as one of my colleagues pointed out, that Gardner had pretty much reached his potential at Mizzou. His lights-out game against Kansas was the height of his Missouri career. Plus, he was in situation where he didn’t know who MU’s coach would be and where he’d fit into the system. Leaving might have been the right choice for him.

But it’s not for Lyons. Gardner worked hard to get on Chicago’s bench. He didn’t mope, whine, or complain about the coaches. He worked really hard. Lyons has shown us all that’s he’s not that type of player. Until this season, almost everything had been handed to Lyons. He didn’t have to answer for being lazy. He admits that he still doesn’t respond to yelling or negativity on the court. He sulked at the end of the bench for two games after the first Iowa State meeting after being benched and didn’t get out of his attitudinal funk for two games.

This all sounds more like a player who needs a year of maturity, not the NBA.

Yes, the last two games have raised eyebrows about Lyons potential, but think about what an entire season would do?

NBADraft.net, which was updated Monday, makes no mention of Lyons on this year’s draft board (shockingly, no Missouri players made the cut). He’s not on the 2009 draft board either. For all Lyons splendid effort in the last two or three contests, he hasn’t shown enough consistency to be a professional player in this country.

Now, there’s always Europe or Asia or Australia where he could make six figures. But if he stays, and plays like he’s shown he can play for an entire season, Lyons could be the first rounder that Gardner never was. Also, Lyons hasn’t exactly been a model of mental fortitude and there’s no telling how he’ll react to a foreign coach in a foreign country yelling at him in some foreign accent. Heck, he can barely handle Missouri coach Mike Anderson yelling at him in Birminghamese.

There are, of course, other factors at work that lend some credence to Lyons jumping ship. He has financial issues and family issues and the money a pro career offers can help a lot more than a scholarship check. His love-hate relationship with Anderson has also been well documented.

But he’s got to ask himself if he’s costing his family money by not coming back? If the Lyons of the last week has anything to say about it, the answer would be yes.

In other news…

Keon Lawrence, on Monday, wanted to squash all rumors that he might be transferring at the end of the season.

“I’m gonna be here,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. We’ve got a good class coming in and, you know, I like it here. I don’t really dislike it even though things aren’t going the best right now. But that’s like life. You can’t just run every time something doesn’t go right. I’m going to be here.”

Honestly folks, Keon had one foot out the door last month. He was terribly homesick, frustrated with the way the team was playing and worried about where he’d fit in next season. But over the last couple weeks, Lawrence has emerged out of Stefhon Hannah’s shadow and found his voice and his leadership.

Oh, and you can thank Jeremy Maclin for some of Lawrence’s newfound confidence. The two have become close, and Maclin, who shares some experiences with Lawrence, talked his new friend off the ledge several times.

And…

Anderson said he would start the team’s four seniors against Iowa State on Wednesday. That’s right, Darryl Butterfield, Marshall Brown, Vaidotas Volkus and Jason Horton together for tipoff and end an interesting rollercoaster period in Missouri basketball. Matt Lawrence is listed as the team’s fifth starter.