2009 NBA Draft Rankings and List of College Underclassmen Declaring Early

Update: The table below listing the underclassmen who have declared for the 2009 NBA Draft was updated to reflect the latest early entires on April 23, 2009.

I know, I know. You’re wondering why in the hell I’m talking about the 2009 NBA Draft when the 2009 NFL Draft is less than 10 days away. A couple of reasons:

1. You can’t believe anything you read about the NFL Draft right now. Teams are floating bogus information all day every day in an effort to try to massage the draft how they want it to go. They say they like players they don’t, they say they don’t like players they do, and somehow guys go up and down draft boards despite the fact that no one has played a game in months. So while I’m excited about the NFL Draft, I’ll wait until the next week to see how it shakes out. Then there will be something to talk about because we’ll actually have some results.
2. There has been a rush of college underclassmen declaring early for the NBA Draft recently. This morning I read that Luke Harangody of Notre Dame has declared for the draft but is not signing with an agent. Now look, Luke Harangody is a nice player and I would love to have him at Indiana. But he is a Hansbrougheque four-year college player who might be able to carve out a spot deep on an NBA bench. I could be wrong, but I just don’t think he has the athleticism or size to translate his game to the NBA. So, if Luke Harangody is going pro, it made me wonder who I might have missed over the past few weeks.

I decided to dig around and look for a list of the college basketball underclassmen who had announced that they were going pro early. When I couldn’t find one, I just decided to make my own. I am not sure if this is a complete list by any means, but it should at least be all of the underclassmen found in Chad Ford’s Top 100 NBA Draft Prospects for 2009 at ESPN.com. If I have missed any, let me know. I’ll updating the this list as guys declare or pull their name out of the hat.

Important Note: Remember the rules in regarding college basketball underclassmen declaring for the draft. Players can declare to test the waters, but as long as they do not hire an agent they can return to school. Many of the players listed below (like Luke Harangody) have declared for the draft but not hired agents. So they could be back. I forgot to track that when I made the table, but if you click over to Chad Ford’s list and find the player based on his ranking, you’ll be able to tell.

Here is the list college basketball underclassmen declaring early for the 2009 NBA Draft:

List of College Basketball Underclassmen Declaring Early for 2009 NBA Draft

Player	Age	Position	Height	Weight	Rank*
Blake Griffin, Oklahoma	20	PF	6-10	245	1
Hasheem Thabeet, UConn	22	C	7-3	265	3
James Harden, Arizona State	19	SG	6-4	215	6
Jordan Hill, Arizona	21	PF	6-9	235	9
DeMar DeRozan, USC	19	SG	6-6	200	10
Tyreke Evans, Memphis	19	SG	6-6	220	11
Stephen Curry, Davisdon	21	PG	6-3	185	13
James Johnson, Wake Forest	22	PF	6-9	245	16
Earl Clark, Louisville	21	SF	6-9	200	17
Jrue Holliday, UCLA	18	PG	6-4	200	19
Jeff Teague, Wake Forest	20	PG	6-2	180	20
Ty Lawson, North Carolina	21	PG	5-11	195	22
Austin Daye, Gonzaga	20	SF	6-10	190	23
Jonny Flynn, Syracuse	20	PG	6-0	175	27
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky	20	PF	6-8	245	28
DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh	19	PF	6-7	250	30
B.J. Mullens, Ohio State	20	C	7-1	260	31
Nick Calathes, Florida	20	PG	6-5	185	32
Wayne Ellington, North Carolina	21	SG	6-5	194	34
Patrick Mills, St. Mary's	20	PG	5-11	175	36
Chase Budinger, Arizona	21	SG	6-7	205	37
Derrick Brown, Xavier	21	PF	6-8	225	43
DaJuan Summers, Georgetown	21	SF	6-8	225	44
Damion James, Texas	21	SF	6-7	230	46
Gani Lawal, George Tech	19	PF	6-9	220	50
Tyler Smith, Tennessee	22	SF	6-7	210	53
Michael Washington, Arkansas	22	PF	6-9	240	55
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland	22	SG	6-6	190	59
Paul Harris, Syracuse	22	SG	6-4	220	69
Jodie Meeks, Kentucky	21	SG	6-4	208	76
Luke Harangody, Notre Dame	21	PF	6-8	255	77
Scottie Reynolds, Villanova	21	PG	6-2	195	82
Dar Tucker, DePaul	21	SF	6-5	210	90
Tasmin Mitchell, LSU	22	SF	6-7	230	106
Mac Koshwal, DePaul	22	C	6-10	255	108
Roderick Flemings, Hawaii	22	SF	6-6	210	128
Eric Devendorf, Syracuse	21	SG	6-4	175	133
Brandon Costner, NC State	21	PF	6-9	230	137
Daniel Hackett, USC	21	PG	6-5	205	140
Dwayne Collins, Miami (FL)	21	F	6-8	240	150
Shawn Taggart, Memphis	24	PF	6-10	238	166
Jeremy Wise, Southern Miss		G	6-2	165	N/A
Devan Downey, South Carolina		G	5-9	175	N/A
Donald Sloan, Texas A&M		G			N/A
* - According to Chad Ford's Top 100 NBA Prospects for 2009 as of 4/17/09

Update 5/1: Follow the link for the complete final list of early NBA draft entrants, plus the foreign guys declaring for the draft.

There are certainly a few guys on there that make you scratch your head a bit. But we’re used to this now in basketball so nobody really surprised be anymore.

Here are some other useful bits of information and links about the 2009 NBA Draft:

• 2009 NBA Draft Date: June 25, 2009
• 2009 NBA Draft Time: 7:00 – 12:00 PM ET
• 2009 NBA Draft Location: Madison Square Garden, NY
• Draft lottery occurs sometime during NBA Playoffs
• 2009 NBA Draft main page — (ESPN.com)
• Who’s In, Who’s Out of NBA Draft — (Chad Ford, ESPN.com)
• 2009 pre-lottery NBA Mock Draft — (NBADraft.net)

Also, before I wrap this post up, I have a few other really solid links for you to check out. These links come courtesy of Paul M. Banks over at the SportsBank.net. I haven’t done a links post in a while so I haven’t been able to work these in. But it’s good stuff:

• Exclusive Interview with Mike Kryzewski — (Paul M. Banks, The Sports Bank)
• Team USA, College B-Ball Celebrities Descend on Chicago — (Paul M. Banks, The Sports Bank)

That’s it for now. Hoping to get another post up at lunch but this is shaping up to be a crazy day at the office. Have a great Friday everyone.

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