Posted Monday, June 18 at 6:31 p.m.

Senior Maureece Rice withdrew his name from the NBA Draft Monday and will return to GW for his senior season.

Rice, a 6-foot-1 guard from Philadelphia, had until 5 p.m. Monday to withdraw from the draft and retain collegiate eligibility.

“I think what he wanted to do was explore and give it chance to see if there’s any interest from the NBA, otherwise he would come back to school,” said GW head coach Karl Hobbs. Hobbs said Rice would not speak to media.

Rice was co-captain of last year’s Colonials team, which rode Rice’s most-valuable-player performance to the Atlantic 10 title last March.

Because Rice will be the team’s only senior and the only full-time starter to return, Hobbs said he does not believe GW deserves to be considered the team to beat in 2007-2008.

“If you look around the league, we’re the only team bringing just one guy back,” Hobbs said. “We’re losing the most points and rebounds from our starters of anyone in the league.”

Hobbs added, “It’s always important that your team comes back and is intact, but you know you’re going to lose guys whether they go to NBA or graduate. We’re fortunate that he’s coming back, but you still have to make adjustments.”