A pair of early entrants who declared for the 2018 NBA draft without hiring agents will keep their names in this year’s pool and go pro, according to reports.
Chattanooga’s Makinde London, who began his college career at Xavier, has signed with an agent, a source tells Jeff Goodman of ESPN (Twitter link). London, who didn’t receive an invite to the NBA draft combine, is coming off a junior year in which he averaged 13.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 1.8 APG.
Meanwhile, Jon Rothstein of FanRag Sports reports (via Twitter) that UIC sophomore forward Dikembe Dixson will also be staying in the draft rather than returning to college. That news doesn’t come as a surprise, since Dixson’s initial announcement – in which he talked about wanting to eventually return to UIC to graduate – strongly suggested that he would go pro, forgoing his remaining NCAA eligibility.
Here are more draft-related updates on this year’s early entrants:
- Southern Miss guard Dominic Magee will return to the program for his senior year after testing the draft waters, a source tells Rothstein (Twitter link). Magee averaged 11.7 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 2017/18 for the Golden Eagles.
- West Virginia junior forward Esa Ahmad, who announced in early April that he would test the draft waters without an agent, is expected to withdraw his name from the 2018 draft pool, reports Goodman (via Twitter). Ahmad’s WVU teammate Sagaba Konate is also going through the draft process –both players will have to formally decide by May 30 whether to stay in the draft or return to school.
- Junior center Malik Martin won’t be returning to South Florida for his senior year, tweets Rothstein. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean Martin will go pro. According to Rothstein, there’s also a chance that the big man will graduate and transfer.