Seven SEC players, all freshmen, tugged on NBA caps on June 21, including four lottery picks chosen between Nos. 8 and 14:
When it comes to SEC basketball, the story of the NBA draft wasn’t the players who became professionals but the ones who stayed behind. There were 26 SEC players among the 181 underclassmen who initially declared for the draft, including 10 who attended the NBA draft combine in Chicago.
The SEC’s high rate of return is a credit to the NBA’s pre-draft evaluation system that offers candid feedback to prospects along with enough time to make a rational decision before sacrificing their college eligibility.