Brandon Huntley-Hatfield – Syndication Server

Auburn loses out on coveted Tennessee transfer

Tigers miss out on former four-star recruit and Tennessee transfer.

On Sunday, Tennessee transfer and power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield announced his commitment to Louisville via his Instagram. The native of Clarksville, Tennessee recently released a final five of SMU, Arizona State, Wake Forest, Louisville, and Auburn. However, it appears that he is headed to Louisville to play for newly hired head coach Kenny Payne.

After visiting the Plains this past weekend, many expected Huntley-Hatfield to commit to the Tigers. Last season, he averaged 3.9 points per game and three rebounds per game for the Volunteers. After an injury sidelined big man Olivier Nkamhoua for a majority of the season, Huntley-Hatfield was called on to play more minutes for Rick Barnes’ squad. Through 35 games, he made 13 starts in Knoxville.

The Tigers’ coaching staff is still in the mix to land Morehead State big man Johni Broome. The Florida Gators are firmly in the mix to land Broome along with several others. 2023 five-star power forward Julian Phillips has also shown heavy interest in Auburn as he began his visit Sunday and remains on campus until Tuesday. However, losing out Huntley-Hatfield will still sting for quite a while.

He was a former five-star recruit in the 2021 recruiting cycle. Jerry Meyer, director of basketball scouting for 247Sports, even went as far as comparing Huntley-Hatfield to former Kentucky and current Knicks forward Julius Randle. It is also worth noting that his cousin is actually Alex Poythress who also played forward at Kentucky. His recruitment will hurt the Tigers temporarily but it shouldn’t hurt long-term.

Players like Yohan Traore, Jaylin Williams, and Dylan Cardwell will all likely have increased roles at the four and five spots for the Tigers. Head coach Bruce Pearl will also likely look for some more players throughout the portal. The future still looks bright and Auburn fans should be excited for the future of the team in orange and blue.

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Aggregate NBA mock draft 2.0: Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith battle for No. 1

In order to help us get a better sense of where all of the projected top prospects in the class stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, Basketball News and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Since our last update, the players who have improved the most spots are Ismael Kamagate (Paris), Moussa Diabate (Michigan), Azuolas Tubelis (Arizona), Hugo Besson (New Zealand), Efe Abogidi (Washington State), Iverson Molinar (Mississippi State), Justin Lewis (Marquette), Max Christie (Michigan State), EJ Liddell (Ohio State), and Ochai Agbaji (Kansas).

The most notable prospects making their debut on our rankings are Trevor Keels (Duke), Bryce McGowens (Nebraska), MarJon Beauchamp (G League Ignite), Keon Ellis (Alabama), Christian Koloko (Arizona), Wendell Moore (Duke), Blake Wesley (Notre Dame), Josh Minott (Memphis), Zach Edey (Purdue), and Johnny Davis (Wisconsin).

Some of the top prospects who did not make the cut this time included Hunter Sallis (Gonzaga), Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Tennesse), Kobe Bufkin (Michigan), Mouhamed Gueye (Washington State), Jahvon Quinerly (Albama), Adam Flagler (Baylor), Jaylin Williams (Auburn), Matthieu Gauzin (Le Mans), Isaiah Wong (Miami), Marcus Williams (Texas A&M), and Tyson Etienne (Wichita State).

Otherwise, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

2022 NBA draft: Breaking down the best freshmen in college basketball

It’s no secret that in the NBA draft, the first few players selected are almost always one-and-done freshmen. So who will it be next season?

Of course, it’s hard to say definitively before the college basketball season begins. But with the Champions Classic tipping off at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 9, another year of collegiate hoops is about to begin. That means another year of prospects are going to make their NCAA debuts and show scouts what they can potentially do as pros.

Below are ten of the best freshmen who are making the transition to the college ranks — as well as another watch-list of some other notable and interesting freshmen to pay attention to as well.

(Note that Memphis’ Emoni Bates was not included because he is not eligible to be drafted until the 2023 NBA draft.)

2022 aggregate NBA mock draft: Debut ranking of all notable prospects

The 2021 NBA draft class finished their first go-around in the summer league, which means evaluators are fully focused on next year’s class.

In order to help us get a better sense of where all of the projected top prospects in the class stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from Bleacher Report, Yahoo, The Athletic, Yahoo, SB Nation, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Collegiate teams who had more than two players appear on a mock were Auburn, Baylor, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee and UCLA. Three players will be on the G League’s Ignite roster and one is on Overtime’s Elite squad.

Additionally, seven players are rostered in Spain and four are playing in Australia’s NBL. There are also three players on Serbia’s KK Mega Basket included.

Freshmen one-and-done candidates who didn’t make the list but could climb on to join during the season: Harrison Ingram (Stanford), Trevor Keels (Duke), Bryce McGowens (Nebraska), Josh Minott (Memphis), Kowacie Reeves (Florida), Bryce Hopkins (Kentucky), Nathan Bittle (Oregon) and Jeremy Sochan (Baylor).

Some of the most notable collegiate returners who were snubbed from these rankings: Marcus Williams (Texas A&M), Jonathan Davis (Wisconsin), Kofi Cockburn (Illinois), Zach Edey (Purdue), Adam Miller (LSU), Colin Castleton (Florida) and Tyson Etienne (Wichita State).

Relevant international prospects to know who were not included below: Fedor Zugic, Lefteris Mantzoukas, Jayson Tchicamboud, Nikita Mikhailovskii, Yoan Makoundou, Tom Digbeu and Makur Maker.

Otherwise, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

Main Image: Coley Cleary / USA TODAY Sports Media Group

2021 NBA Mock Draft: Predicting all 59 picks, starting with Chet Holmgren

Let’s look ahead to next year’s draft.

We are only a couple of weeks removed from the 2021 NBA draft and it’s silly to publish a mock draft for next year. But let’s do it anyway.

Because frankly, far away as though it may seem, ten months can go by fast. Although a lot is going to change, some things stay the same. For example, I published my first mock draft of the 2020 cycle in May 2019 and all three of the first projected picks heard their names called within the first three picks nearly fifteen months later. Much of the rest, of course, is utterly wrong and embarrassing. But it is still helpful to track progression and regression.

Before we discuss the next crop of future NBA talent, however, let’s address the elephant in the room. You have probably noticed that the headline said this mock draft highlights 59 picks. No, that isn’t a typo.

Allow me to explain. The Milwaukee Bucks have forfeited the rights to their second-round pick in the 2022 NBA draft due to violating league rules regarding an attempted transaction made back in Nov. 2020. While it sucks for the additional person who is going to go undrafted, undrafted free agency isn’t the worst thing.

Otherwise, the order of this draft was determined by reversing the NBA futures odds courtesy of Tipico SportsBook. The teams whose odds fell outside the eight best in each conference composed the projected lottery. Meanwhile, all picks involved with previous trades were included in the order as well.

Another quick housekeeping note: My mock drafts tend to be fairly data-driven. But that can sometimes lead to some blind spots for evaluating prospects playing outside the NCAA (e.g. high school, AAU, FIBA, etc.), which made pre-season mock drafts particularly difficult.

That’s no longer the case thanks to the help from our fantastic new partners over at Cerebro Sports, a stats and analytics resource that scrapes box scores to determine how top basketball prospects have stacked up against all their previous competition.

With all that in mind, far away as we may be from draft night on June 22, here is how I see everything shaking out just based on what we know so far:

Five-star PF Brandon Huntley-Hatfield commits to Tennessee, reclassifies

Five-star power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield committed to Tennessee and reclassified from the class of 2022 to 2021 on Thursday.

Clarksville (Tenn.) High School power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, the No. 6 recruit and No. 1 power forward in the class of 2022 according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, announced on Instagram that he is committing to Tennessee and reclassifying into the class of 2021.

Huntley-Hatfield ultimately picked Tennessee over Auburn, Ole Miss, Kansas, Tennessee, Wake Forest and Syracuse, among others. He joins Kennedy Chandler as Tennessee’s second five-star commitment in its 2021 recruiting class.

Huntley-Hatfield is Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes’ second recruiting victory in as many days, as former Marquette pledge Jonas Aidoo committed to the Volunteers on Tuesday.

According to 247Sports’ Jerry Meyer, Huntley-Hatfield has “a quintessential power forward body with length, strength and density.” You can read the entirety of his scouting report below.

Has a quintessential power forward body with length, strength and density. Power based athlete. High level body control for a player his size. Can score from all three levels. Very comfortable with the ball. Has functional ball handling skills that produce buckets in scoring range. Can get to the basket efficiently. Loves to go left as a righty. Has ability to dominate his area as a rebounder. Improving as a defender is a proper area of focus.

Tennessee in top 5 for 5-star forward

The Vols might have a shot to land this 5-star forward.

Tennessee basketball is in the mix to land an elite talent in the 2022 recruiting class, as 5-star power forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield released his top five schools on Friday.

top 5! top 5! top 5! pic.twitter.com/6pP5WV5eaB

— brandon ✞ (@RealGupaveli) October 16, 2020

Tennessee is competing with Auburn, Ole Miss, Kansas and Wake Forest for Huntley-Hatfield’s signature.

Huntley-Hatfield is a 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward that is rated as the No. 1 power forward in his class, and the No. 6 player nationally by the 247Sports Composite.

Although he plays his high school basketball at Scotland Performance Institute in Scotland, Pennsylvania, Huntley-Hatfield is a Clarksville, Tennessee native.

A lot of time will pass before Huntley-Hatfield’s recruitment comes to an end, as the Vols are looking to add to its 2021 recruiting class, as well. Tennessee is still in the running and will have an entire recruiting cycle to convince him in coming to Knoxville in 2022.