-
Adrian WojnarowskiESPN
Ohio State forward Keita Bates-Diop will pass on his final year of college eligibility and enter the NBA draft in June, sources told ESPN.
Bates-Diop, the Big Ten Conference Player of the Year, is expected to formalize an announcement at a campus news conference Monday in Columbus.
Bates-Diop, 6-foot-7 with a lengthy wingspan, is ranked 19th in ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony’s list of Top 100 NBA prospects.
He averaged 19.8 points and 8.7 rebounds a game for the Buckeyes, including 25 points in an NCAA tournament loss to Gonzaga last week.
After a tremendously productive redshirt junior season elevated Ohio State into one of the conference’s significant overachievers, Bates-Diop’s ability to play and guard multiple positions makes him a versatile prototype for the modern NBA game.
Bates-Diop, 22, steadily improved from his freshman year, playing parts of four seasons for the Buckeyes. After suffering a fractured left leg nine games into the 2016-17 season, the NCAA awarded Bates-Diop a redshirt season that would’ve allowed him to return for a fifth year in 2018-19.
Bates-Diop is a native of Normal, Illinois.
Source : ESPN
