Seven More NCAA Early Entrants Withdrew From Draft
Seven more early entrants who had been testing the NBA draft waters this spring decided prior to the NCAA’s withdrawal deadline on Wednesday to remove their names from consideration and will return to college, reports Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress (Twitter link).
Those players, along with their 2025/26 schools, are as follows:
- Kennard Davis, G/F, BYU (junior)
- Keanu Dawes, F, Utah (junior)
- Gabe Dynes, C, USC (junior)
- Eian Elmer, F, Miami (OH) (junior)
- Louis Hutchinson, G/F, Alabama A&M (junior)
- Sebastian Rancik, F, Colorado (sophomore)
- LeJuan Watts, F, Texas Tech (junior)
At least six of these prospects will be transferring to new schools for the 2026/27 season, Chepkevich notes, with Davis headed to Missouri, Dawes going to Kansas, Dynes on his way to Louisville, Elmer joining Wisconsin, Rancik committed to Florida State, and Watts set to suit up for Washington.
Hutchinson, who has played for four programs since 2022, is still in the transfer portal, per Chepkevich, so he’ll likely move on to a new school as well.
These seven players, none of whom were on ESPN’s top-100 list for 2026, were the only NCAA early entrants whose draft plans hadn’t been announced or reported. As our tracker shows, there are now 26 college early entrants expected to remain in the draft pool, while 34 reportedly withdrew by 11:59 pm ET on Wednesday. Our data isn’t official, so we’ll wait for confirmation from the NBA to be certain that those lists are accurate.
With the NCAA withdrawal deadline behind us, the next big draft-related date to watch is June 13, which is the NBA’s withdrawal deadline. The 11 international prospects who declared for the draft will have until that Saturday to decide whether to keep their names in or pull out.
Tounde Yessoufou Withdraws From Draft, Transferring To St. John’s
Ahead of Wednesday night’s withdrawal deadline, potential first-round pick Tounde Yessoufou opted to remove his name from the 2026 NBA draft, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
Yessoufou’s agency tells Charania that the former Baylor guard, who will be entering his sophomore season, has committed to play for Rick Pitino at St. John’s in 2026/27.
A 6’5″ wing, Yessoufou had an impressive freshman year for the Bears, averaging 17.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals, and 1.6 assists in 32.6 minutes per game across 34 outings (all starts). He struggled with his three-point shot (29.3%) but posted respectable field goal (46.5%) and free throw (74.6%) percentages.
While Yessoufou was a candidate to come off the board in the first 30 picks next month, he wasn’t a lock to do so. Jonathan Wassmeran of Bleacher Report had the 20-year-old being picked 28th overall in his most recent mock draft, but Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports had him at No. 31 and ESPN’s Jeremy Woo had him at No. 34. Assuming he takes a step forward as a sophomore, Yessoufou should strengthen his case to be a first-rounder in 2027.
Yessoufou was one of two notable prospects whose draft decision had yet to be reported when Wednesday’s midnight deadline for NCAA withdrawals passed. The other was Arkansas guard Meleek Thomas, the No. 25 prospect on ESPN’s big board, whose intentions still haven’t been confirmed one way or the other.
[UPDATE: Meleek Thomas Remains In NBA Draft]
As our tracker shows, there are at least seven other college early entrants whose decisions have yet to be announced or reported, but Kennard Davis, Keanu Dawes, Gabe Dynes, Eian Elmer, Louis Hutchinson, Sebastian Rancik, and LeJuan Watts don’t show up on ESPN’s top-100 list, so if they withdraw, it’s unlikely to have a significant impact on teams’ draft plans.
[UPDATE: Seven More NCAA Early Entrants Withdrew From Draft]
Typically, the NBA provides an update shortly after the NCAA withdrawal deadline on which players have removed their names from the draft pool. The NBA’s own withdrawal deadline, which is more relevant for international players, is on June 13.
NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2026 Draft
The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2026 draft, announcing in a press release (Twitter link) that 71 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 60 are from colleges and 11 had been playing for teams internationally.
While that early entrant total exceeds the number of players who will be selected in this year’s draft (60), it’s down significantly from the figures we’ve seen in recent years. In fact, it’s the lowest since 2003, per Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (Twitter link). A record 353 early entrants initially declared for the draft in 2021, but that number dropped to 283 in 2022, 242 in 2023, 201 in 2024, and 109 a year ago.
The NCAA’s NIL policy, which allows college athletes to be paid based on their name, image, and likeness, has been a major factor in that downward trend — fewer prospects feel the need to go pro as soon as possible when they’re earning big money at the college level.
The huge dip in the past two years can also be attributed in large part to the fact that nearly all college seniors are now automatically draft-eligible. In recent years, most fourth-year seniors faced an “early entrant” decision because they were granted an extra year of NCAA eligibility due to COVID-19 and didn’t have the 2020/21 season count toward their typical limit.
This year’s total of 71 early entrants figures to decline even further by May 27 and again by June 13, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. The former date is for college players who wish to retain their NCAA eligibility, while the latter is for international prospects. The leftover early entrants after June 13 will join the college seniors with no remaining eligibility and other automatically eligible players in this year’s draft pool.
Our tracker of early entrants for the 2026 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.
- Alijah Arenas, G, USC (freshman)
- Jacob Cofie, F, USC (sophomore)
- Cruz Davis, G, Hofstra (junior)
- Kennard Davis, G/F, BYU (junior)
- Gabe Dynes, C, USC (junior)
- Eian Elmer, F, Miami (OH) (junior)
- Colby Garland, G, San Jose State (junior)
- Isiah Harwell, G, Houston (freshman)
- Louis Hutchinson, G/F, Alabama (junior)
- Paulius Murauskas, F, Saint Mary’s (junior)
- Sebastian Rancik, F, Colorado (sophomore)
- Andrej Stojakovic, G/F, Illinois (junior)
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.
- Francesco Ferrari, F, Italy (born (2005)
- Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada, G, France (born 2006)
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.
Because they’re absent from the league’s official list, we’ve removed the following names from our own early entrant list.
Note: Some of these players may also be transferring to new schools. Their 2025/26 school is listed here.
- Dai Dai Ames, G, California (junior)
- Terrence Brown, G, Utah (junior)
- John Mobley Jr., G, Ohio State (sophomore)