Keion Brooks out of the NBA draft but do not look for him to be back at Kentucky

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Keion Brooks seems to have Notre Dame, Arizona and Washington as his most likely spots to play next year. (Photo by Vicky Graff)

About a week after indicating he was all-in on keeping his name in the NBA Draft, Keion Brooks Jr. is taking his name out of the draft based on what his agent told Adam Zagaoria of zagsblog.com.

However, don’t look for him to be back at Kentucky for a fourth season. Instead, reports indicate he’s interested in Notre Dame, Arizona and Washington but there would also be others.

Notre Dame is close to Brooks’ home in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and could be his landing spot. He picked UK over Indiana, Michigan State, North Carolina and Purdue in 2019.

Brooks averaged 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game last season and 10.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore. He was not projected to be picked in any NBA mock drafts but on a Zoom call from the NBA G League Camp in Chicago last week he said he thought his game was better suited for the NBA than UK.

On WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk, Krysten Peek — a basketball writer for Yahoo.com and Rivals.com — indicated Sunday staying in the draft was a mistake for Brooks.

“There are only 58 picks in the draft,” Peek said. “This is a very frustrating point for me. With the NIL opportunity to go back to school and make money, have a guaranteed spot to play and not on a two-way contract (in the NBA), and working every single day for your job is a much better option.

“In the next couple of years I don’t think you are going to see players ship jump quite as much and leave school thinking they are going to the NBA. Keion is not even a second-round pick now. Maybe he would get a summer league deal and two-way contract at best but I just don’t think staying in the draft was his best move.”

Now apparently Brooks agrees and will stay in college — just not at Kentucky where he would have faced competition from Jacob Toppin and Daimion Collins for playing time next season.

3 Responses

  1. Keion was tired of being the fifth option in Calipari’s trigger happy guard offense. I was really shocked that Oscar came back. I wish him and Keion the best, but Oscar will still be stuck in Calipari’s offense. The guards refuse to feed the post. Oscar will most likely, take a step back, as the guards and wings are not going to give up their shots to help him develop one. How can you be the player of the year and not even be considered a second round draft pick? College basketball at Kentucky has suffered greatly as a result of the players first coaching philosophy. I don’t see it getting any better until Calipari is shown the door.

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