Basketball fans look forward to NBA draft

photo via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons license

photo via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons license

Justin Quinn and Kyle O'Scanlon

This year’s March madness was exciting. With many upsets and crazy shots, even if your bracket was horrible and you didn’t win in your group, it was an exciting time in the NCAA. But now that March Madness is over the next thing for some NCAA players is the NBA draft, where fans hope their favorite NBA team will make the right choice for the upcoming season. This year the draft will be held in the Barclay’s Center on June 23. 

Brandon Ingram declared on Monday, 4/11, that he would be entering the draft, and in some people’s eyes, he is this year’s lottery pick. Brandon Ingram is a freshman at Duke University. He averages 17.3 points per game, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.0 assists; his season total in points this year was 624. Duke is suffering a big loss by losing Brandon Ingram, but so far no other Duke player declared early draft.

Denzel Valentine, a senior at Michigan state, is projected to be a #17 draft pick. Denzel Valentine averages 19.2 points per game, 7.5 rebounds per game, and 7.8 assists per game. He had 595 total points this season. Denzel Valentine was projected to lead Michigan State to a tournament win but that prediction was destroyed in the first round on the NCAA tournament when the #2 seed in the Midwest division lost to a #15 seed. That game was just one of the big upsets this year in the tournament.

This year is going to be an interesting year in the draft.