Missouri junior Jabari Brown has announced he’s entering the NBA draft, according to the school’s website (hat tip to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com). The shooting guard is No. 52 in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect rankings and No. 72 with Chad Ford of ESPN.com. Brown was the SEC’s leading scorer this past season, notching 19.9 points per game overall and 20.7 PPG in conference play.
Brown showed significant improvement from last season, lifting his scoring average by more than six points on fewer than two and a half more shots per contest. He shot 41.0% from behind the arc, knocking down 2.3 three-pointers a night. He’s undersized at 6’4″, but he’s nonetheless relatively proficient at posting up, according to Ford. The 21-year-old showed a knack for getting to the line, shooting 10 or more free throws in four of his final eight contests, but he took only four shots from the line and was just 4 for 13 from the field in a season-ending loss to Southern Miss in the NIT.
Fellow Missouri junior guard Jordan Clarkson is also entering the draft, as we noted earlier. Both have until April 15th to withdraw and return to school.