All-Big 12 first-teamer Cole Aldrich, right, walks off the court with Big 12 Player of the Year Blake Griffin of Oklahoma.

Kansas University junior-to-be Cole Aldrich told the Journal-World before the NBA Draft he had no second thoughts about putting the pros on hold another year.

His dad, Walt, 51, of Bloomington, Minn., provided his take on his son’s skipping Thursday’s draft to the hometown St. Paul Pioneer Press.

“I was telling the guys at the firehouse the other day that it’s hard to believe someone turning down a million dollars to play basketball,” said Walt Aldrich, a volunteer fireman and unemployed sheet metal worker.

“But in the long run, he’ll be better off,” Walt added. “Cole has no regrets about staying in school. Like he said, he might as well enjoy college and playing basketball because, next year, he’ll be doing it as a job. And that’s true. It’s a job. The (NBA) probably would work him a lot more than in college — 80 games compared to 40.”

Walt’s son on Sunday will travel to work the Amare Stoudemire camp in Mesa, Ariz.

Cole’s dad, meanwhile, is hoping to find employment with a year to go before his son hits the big payday in the 2010 Draft.

“For too long,” Walter told the Pioneer Press, referring to being unemployed in this tough economy.