As we detailed about 24 hours ago, Wednesday represented a key deadline for NCAA underclassmen who had declared for the 2018 NBA draft. Early entrants who haven’t yet hired an agent technically have until June 11 to pull their names out of the draft, based on NBA rules. But the NCAA has its own set of deadlines, and May 30 was the last day for early entrants to withdraw from the draft and retain their college eligibility.
As such, we saw a flurry of announcements on Wednesday, with players like Kevin Huerter (Maryland), Omari Spellman (Villanova), Jarred Vanderbilt (Kentucky) deciding to remain in the draft, while other notable prospects like Tyus Battle (Syracuse), Jontay Porter (Missouri), and PJ Washington (Kentucky) elected to return to school.
Our full early entrant list has been updated with the latest news, but there are still a small handful of gaps in that list. The NBA won’t release an official list of early entrants for 2018 until after the league’s own June 11 deadline, so we’ll have to wait nearly two weeks for confirmation on this year’s draft class. However, here’s a breakdown of our numbers for now:
- NCAA early entrants who are believed to be staying in the draft: 79
- NCAA early entrants who reportedly withdrew from the draft: 96
- NCAA early entrants who showed up on the NBA’s initial list in April whose decisions haven’t been announced or reported, as far as we can tell: 7
The seven players whose statuses we’re unsure about are Tashawn Berry (Dakota College), Dextor Foster (ASA College), Tremaine Fraiser (Westchester CC), Victor Lewis II (West Texas A&M), Jordan Murdock (Friends University), Keanu Peters (Salt Lake CC), and Micah Seaborn (Monmouth). If we missed any updates on any of those players, please let us know in the comment section.
Meanwhile, even though that June 11 NBA withdrawal deadline isn’t overly important for college prospects, it’s a key date for international early entrants. Over the next week and a half, we’ll likely hear plenty of updates on that group of 55 players, many of whom will remove their names from the 2018 draft pool.