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UNLV Center Brandon McCoy officially declares for the draft, ending his college career after one year at UNLV.
Brandon McCoy hasn’t said that he will be hiring an agent, but the tone of his announcements makes it appear like he is going to.
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Freshman center Brandon McCoy has declared for the NBA Draft in June.
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In the current college basketball world it’s not uncommon for players to declare for the draft with the expectation that they will take their name out, and return to their school. That doesn’t appear to be the likely path for UNLV’s star center, Brandon McCoy.
https://twitter.com/Mccoy_blvd/status/978728612667912192
While it was always expected that McCoy would declare for the draft, there was at least some hope that he would do so without hiring an agent, therefore giving himself the option to withdraw from the draft and return for his sophomore season. And McCoy doesn’t explicitly state that he’s hiring an agent, but based on the wording in the above post, it seems like his mind is completely made up to forgo is remaining college eligibility.
After coming to UNLV out of San Diego’s Cathedral Catholic, McCoy went on to average 17 points and 10 rebounds per game, and was named First Team All Mountain West and also the conferences Freshman of the Year. He’s currently projected as a late first round or second pick and how he does at the NBA combine (not officially selected it, but would be surprising if he’s left out) and individual team workouts, will go a long way in determining if he increases his draft stock or falls further into the second round.
For the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels this opens up a massive hole, but one that they were expecting to be opened. Fortunately, they return some talented forwards in Shakur Juiston and Cheikh Mbacke Diong and have some very talented players in Bryce Hamilton and Trey Woodbury coming in, who should be able to make up for the scoring that will be lost.