Meleek Thomas has opted to keep his name in the 2026 NBA draft and forgo his remaining NCAA eligibility rather than returning to Arkansas for his sophomore season, a source tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link).
The deadline for college players to withdraw from the draft and retain their NCAA eligibility was on Wednesday at 11:59 pm Eastern time.
Playing alongside projected lottery pick Darius Acuff at Arkansas in 2025/26, Thomas averaged 15.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.5 steals in 30.5 minutes per game, appearing in 37 games and starting 21 of them. The 6’3″ combo guard knocked down an impressive 41.6% of his 5.3 three-point attempts per game and hit 84.3% of his free throws, earning a spot next to Acuff on the SEC’s All-Freshman team.
Thomas is widely projected to be a late first-round pick, coming in at 24th, 26th, and 28th, respectively, in the latest mock drafts from Bleacher Report, ESPN, and Yahoo Sports. While his shooting is his primary strength, the 19-year-old showed improvement on defense over the course of his lone season with the Razorbacks, according to Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report and Jeremy Woo of ESPN.
Our early entrant tracker for the 2026 draft can be found right here.