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Draft Notes: Mogbo, Bal, Agbo, Gaines, Da Silva, Edey

April 7th, 2024 at 7:00pm CST by Luke Adams

San Francisco senior forward/center Jonathan Mogbo announced on Twitter that he has decided to enter his name in the 2024 NBA draft pool while maintaining his final year of college eligibility.

The No. 70 prospect on ESPN’s list of the top 100 players in the 2024 draft class and a member of the All-WCC first team, Mogbo has played at four different programs in his four college seasons. He transferred to San Francisco from Missouri State in 2023 and had a big year for the Dons, averaging a double-double (14.2 PPG, 10.1 RPG) in 34 games (28.9 MPG).

Here are a few more draft-related notes:

  • Another member of the All-WCC first team, Santa Clara junior wing Adama-Alpha Bal, has also declared for the draft, announcing on Instagram that he’ll be testing the waters this spring. After playing a modest role off Arizona’s bench in his first two college seasons, Bal put up 14.4 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 3.1 APG on .433/.354/.821 shooting as a full-time starter at Santa Clara in 2023/24.
  • Boise State senior swingman Chibuzo Agbo will enter the draft while maintaining his final year of college eligibility, tweets Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. Agbo averaged 13.7 PPG and 5.1 RPG with a .409 3PT% in 33 games (all starts) in ’23/24.
  • UAB senior guard Eric Gaines announced on Instagram that he’ll be putting his “full focus” on the NBA draft process, which suggests he’s planning to go pro rather than leaving the door open to one more year of college ball. Gaines averaged 12.3 PPG, 5.5 APG, 3.9 RPG, and 2.3 SPG in 35 games (33.7 MPG) for the Blazers this season.
  • Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo of ESPN (Insider link) share their updated prospect rankings for 2024, highlighting risers like Colorado forward Tristan Da Silva, who is all the way up to No. 18 after previously being ranked 40th. Another NCAA Tournament standout, Purdue big man Zach Edey has moved into lottery territory in ESPN’s latest rankings, at No. 13.
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Draft Notes: Strawther, Bagley, LeDee, Flanigan, Nelson, Gaines

May 30th, 2023 at 9:15pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Gonzaga forward Julian Strawther has decided to remain in the draft, Jeff Goodman of Stadium tweets. Strawther averaged 15.2 points and shot 41 percent from beyond the arc last season. He’s ranked No. 56 on ESPN’s Best Available list, making him a potential second round pick.

Arizona’s Marcus Bagley – the younger brother of Pistons big man Marvin Bagley III – has also decided to remain in the draft despite appearing in just five games over the last two seasons, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein tweets.

Several other players who declared for the draft have opted to remove their names as the withdrawal deadline for early entrants nears. Here are some of the players who are headed back to school:

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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2023 Draft

April 26th, 2023 at 10:55am CST by Rory Maher

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2023 NBA draft, announcing in a press release that 242 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 192 are from colleges, two played in the NBA G League, and 48 are international early entrants.

Those are big numbers, but they fall well short of the 353 early entrants who initially declared for the draft in 2021 and the 283 who entered last year. Beginning in 2021, the NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in seniors having to decide between staying at college for one more season or declaring for the draft as an “early” entrant.

This year’s total of 242 early entrants figures to shrink significantly by May 31 and again by June 12, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. But it still looks like the pool will remain extremely crowded, with the eventual number of early entrants certain to exceed 58, the number of picks in the draft.

Our tracker of early entrants for the 2023 draft is fully up to date and can be found right here.

Here are the changes we made to our tracker today:

Newly added players:

College players:

These players either didn’t publicly announce that they were entering the draft or we simply missed it when they did.

International players:

These players weren’t previously mentioned on our list of international early entrants. The country listed here indicates where they last played, not necessarily where they were born.

  • Miguel Allen, F, Spain (born 2003)
  • Idrissa Ba, C, France (born 2002)
  • Elian Benitez, G, France (born 2003)
  • William Beugre-Kassi, G/F, France (born 2004)
  • Sasa Ciani, F, Croatia (born 2003)
  • Ege Demir, F/C, Turkey (born 2004)
  • Thijs De Ridder, F, Belgium (born 2003)
  • Nikola Djurisic, G/F, Serbia (born 2004)
  • Ruben Dominguez, G, Spain (born 2003)
  • Quinn Ellis, G, Italy (born 2003)
  • Juan Fernandez, F/C, Spain (born 2002)
  • Clement Frisch, F, France (born 2002)
  • Sananda Fru, F, Germany (born 2003)
  • Gloire Goma, G, Spain (born 2003)
  • Hassane Gueye, F, France (born 2003)
  • Ondrej Hanzlik, F, Spain (born 2002)
  • Ilias Kamardine, G, France (born 2003)
  • Konstantin Kostadinov, F, Spain (born 2003)
  • Oleksandr Kovliar, G, Estonia (born 2002)
  • Liutauras Lelevicius, G, Lithuania (born 2003)
  • Gilad Levy, C, Israel (born 2002)
  • Ruben Lopez, F, Spain (born 2002)
  • Assemian Moulare, G, France (born 2003)
  • Daniel Onwenu, G, Brazil (born 2002)
  • Ivan Perasovic, F, Croatia (born 2002)
  • Mantas Rubstavicius, G, Lithuania (born 2002)
  • Musa Sagnia, F/C, Spain (born 2003)
  • Marcio Santos, F/C, Brazil (born 2002)
  • Enzo Shahrvin, F, France (born 2003)
  • Birahima Sylla, G, France (born 2003)
  • Dez Andras Tanoh, G, Hungary (born 2002)
  • Hugo Toom, F, Estonia (born 2002)
  • Armel Traore, F, France (born 2003)
  • Ricards Vanags, G/F, Latvia (born 2002)

Other notable draft-eligible early entrants:

The NBA typically sends its teams a list of “also-eligible” names. That list isn’t public. However, we’re assuming that at least one projected top-three pick is on it: Scoot Henderson of the G League Ignite. Overtime Elite standouts Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson would also be on this list, as would Henderson’s Ignite teammate Leonard Miller.

Players removed:

Despite reports or announcements that the players below would declare for the draft, they didn’t show up on the NBA’s official list.

That could mean a number of things — they may have decided against entering the draft; they may have entered the draft, then withdrawn; they may have had no NCAA eligibility remaining, making them automatically draft-eligible; they may have incorrectly filed their paperwork; or the NBA may have accidentally omitted some names.

In any case, we’ve removed the following names from our early entrant list, at least for the time being.

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