A member of Villanova’s championship team, redshirt freshman forward Omari Spellman, is the latest underclassman to announce that he’s declaring for the 2018 NBA draft. The program confirmed today in a press release that Spellman will be entering his name in this year’s draft pool, albeit without hiring an agent in order to retain his NCAA eligibility.
Spellman, who averaged 10.9 PPG and 8.0 in his first season with the Wildcats, is one of nearly 140 early entrants from the NCAA who have announced their intent to enter this year’s draft. According to the information we’ve compiled in our early entrants tracker, the breakdown looks like this:
- NCAA underclassmen expected to hire an agent and go pro: 50
- NCAA underclassmen testing draft waters without an agent: 89
- International early entrants entering draft pool: 13
- Total: 152
Our list may not be 100% accurate — there are a small handful of players whose statuses we’ve been unable to confirm, and it’s possible we’ve missed some announcements from smaller NCAA programs or lesser-known international squads. Additionally, some players who announced their intent to test the waters may ultimately decide not to do so.
Still, our early entrants list gives us a pretty accurate sense of what the current count looks like, and it’s about in line with the last couple years. In 2017, for instance, the NBA’s list of early entrants for the draft initially included 182 names. However, many of those prospects ultimately pulled their names from consideration before the withdrawal deadlines.
We’re nearing the first of this year’s deadlines, as early entrants now have less than one week to officially enter their names in the draft pool. Once an NCAA underclassman hires an agent, he has officially relinquished his amateur status, but international players and NCAA prospects without agents can withdraw their names later in the process. Here are the key dates to watch:
- Deadline for early entrants to submit their names for the 2018 draft pool: April 22
- NCAA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw and retain their NCAA eligibility: May 30
- NBA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw: June 11
We can expect to get a complete list of 2018’s initial group of early entrants sometime next week. Because prospects will have the opportunity to withdraw though, the final list of early entrants won’t be official until June.