Duke small forward Rodney Hood and Louisville power forward Montrezl Harrell will declare their intent to enter this year’s draft, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link). Zagoria also confirms a weekend report from Chad Ford of ESPN.com that West Virginia point guard Juwan Staten is headed for the draft. The SNY.tv scribe also suggests Ohio State small forward LaQuinton Ross is draft-bound as well, although Ross said yesterday that he remains undecided.
Hood’s sophomore season ended in stunning fashion with Duke’s upset loss to Mercer in the NCAA tournament last week, but he spent most of the year rocketing up draft boards. He went from No. 67 in the preseason on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospects lists to No. 16, the same position he occupies on Chad Ford’s big board at ESPN.com. The 6’8″ 21-year-old averaged 16.1 points per game and made 42% of his three-point attempts this season.
There’s some divergence on just how hot Harrell’s stock is, with Ford pegging him 11th and Givony listing him as the 20th best prospect. He’s the same height as Hood but bulkier, enabling him to play inside. Harrell is nonetheless small for his position, though he grabbed 8.4 rebounds per game to go with 14.0 points per contest. His Cardinals are still alive in the NCAA tournament.
Wish he would stay another year…the team could use your leadership and skills on the court and in the locker room…but understand…thanks for the memories #5…good luck and GOD Bless
Man! Louisville would be INCREDIBLE if we could keep Montrezl for another year. He broke the single season dunk record at Louisville, which says a LOT. The man stepped in and did his thing in Chane Behanans absence. He helped bring us a national title and pretty much single handedly won us the last REAL Big East Championship against Syracuse. I aint mad at him though. The man has a wife and kid to support. Go get that paper, bro!
Season DUNK record? Is that a real thing? What a stupid stat…..
But, yeah, the Cardinals would ominate next year if he stuck around one more season.
I dont know if every school keeps that stat but Harrell broke a record that stood for over 30 years. I dont know how old you are but in the early 80’s Louisville had the “Doctors of Dunk” lead by Dr. Dunkenstein, Darrell Griffith. Every game they played had highlights that would rival today’s highlghts, only the shorts were much shorter. The dunk was perfected at Louisville and its something we take a lot of pride in so yes, it is a real stat, atleast at Louisville