The most important people in Zach Randolph's life might not have agreed with his decision to leave Michigan State for the NBA after his freshman year, but they have squelched their reservations and formed a wall of support around the power forward. It's on thin ice, where you don't know how it's going to turn out.
Nobody wants to lose a player.
But sometimes you don't want to lose a player because you get fond of a guy year-round. Zach has some people he'd like to take care of. Michigan State had gone 22 years without losing a player early to the NBA draft. Now, two have left in the past two days. Randolph's decision was met with much more trepidation than that of sophomore swingman Jason Richardson, who made his announcement Tuesday in Saginaw.