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Niederhauser Staying In Draft; Others Announce Withdrawals Before Deadline

May 28th, 2025 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Penn State big man Yanic Konan Niederhauser has decided to remain in the NBA draft, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Twitter link).

Givony states that Niederhauser moved into first-round consideration with a strong performance at the NBA Draft Combine earlier this month. He was also impressive at the G League Elite Camp, making him one of five players from the event to earn an invitation to the combine.

A seven-footer out of Switzerland, Niederhauser spent two years at Northern Illinois before transferring to Penn State last summer. He averaged 12.9 points and 6.3 rebounds in 29 games for the Nittany Lions while shooting 61.1% from the field and leading the Big 10 in blocks with 2.3 per night. He’s listed as the No. 85 prospect on ESPN’s latest big board, but has reportedly moved up significantly in the eyes of scouts since it was published.

Givony describes Niederhauser as “one of the best athletes in the draft” (Twitter link), weighing 243 pounds and combining a 7’3″ wingspan with a 9’3″ standing reach. Givony also cites his “significant potential as a vertical pick and roll spacer.”

We have updates on a few more early entries who reached their decisions shortly before Wednesday night’s deadline to withdraw and maintain their NCAA eligibility:

  • Miles Byrd will take his name out of the draft and return to San Diego State for his senior season, his father tells Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports (Twitter link). Ranked No. 51 by ESPN, Byrd was also impressive at the combine. He averaged 12.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.1 steals for the Aztecs last season.
  • Quincy Ballard tells Rothstein (Twitter link) that he’s also pulling out of the draft and will transfer from Wichita State to Mississippi State. It will be the third school for the senior center, who averaged 10.0 points and 9.2 rebounds for the Shockers last season.
  • Jaron Pierre, who played at Jacksonville State last season, will leave the draft and transfer to SMU, according to Rothstein (Twitter link). He’ll be a fifth-year senior after posting 21.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game with the Gamecocks.
  • Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli will return to school after putting up 20.5 points per game for the Wildcats last season, Rothstein tweets. Rothstein expects the rising senior to be one of the Big Ten’s top players.
  • Tae Davis will leave the draft and transfer from Notre Dame to Oklahoma for his senior season, Rothstein adds (Twitter link). Davis averaged 15.1 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Irish as a junior.
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NBA Announces Initial Early Entrant List For 2025 Draft

April 29th, 2025 at 10:40am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has officially released the initial list of early entrants for the 2025 NBA draft, announcing in a press release (Twitter link) that 106 players have filed as early entry candidates. Of those prospects, 73 are from colleges, 30 had been playing for teams internationally, and three were playing non-college ball stateside (in the G League).

While that early entrant total exceeds the number of players who will be selected in this year’s draft (59), it’s down significantly from the figures we’ve seen in recent years. A record 353 early entrants initially declared for the draft in 2021, but that number dropped to 283 in 2022, 242 in 2023, and 201 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 this year can also be attributed in large part to the fact that most 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 106 early entrants figures to decline significantly by May 28 and again by June 15, the two deadlines for players to withdraw their names from the draft pool. The leftover early entrants 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 2025 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.

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 NBA’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.

According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Twitter link), two-time national champion Alex Karaban of UConn also initially filed paperwork to test the draft waters, but withdrew from the pool before the NBA put out today’s early entrant list. He’ll return to the Huskies for his senior season.

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