The NCAA’s draft withdrawal deadline elapsed at midnight on Wednesday, firming up the pool of college prospects for the 2022 draft as a host of other notables chose to return to school at the last minute. The final early-entry deadline is June 13, which is meaningful for international prospects and those no longer considering college. For now, here’s a quick rundown of the key college returners you should know going into next season.
It’s worth prefacing these player updates with a quick note on the shape of the 2022 draft itself, which always becomes a factor in how players make these decisions. The prevailing sense I’ve gotten in conversations with team personnel in recent days is that the draft feels more fluid than usual. Due to an extreme variance of opinion around the NBA on prospects, beginning roughly in the teens, front offices are trying to sift through an overwhelming amount of market uncertainty, which runs all the way into the second round.
The majority of draft picks in the 20s and 30s are thought to be available in trades, and a lot of movement is expected. That said, building out hypothetical deals at this point in time is like trying to hit a moving target due to the lack of clarity over which players will be actually available at which spots. In some cases, that directly impacted prospects who were on the fence about the draft and hoping to obtain some type of guarantee to stay in: at the end of the day, there were only so many valid landing spots, and at this stage teams can’t really promise picks that they still might trade.
The first part of this column came out immediately following the early-entry deadline and covered prospects who chose not to enter the draft. And while for the most part, the top players still on the fence decided to turn pro, here’s a look at some of the key names who opted to return to college this week.