Tag: Jason Preston

2021 aggregate NBA mock draft 2.0: How has the NCAA season changed rankings?

Now that the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball season is underway, we are getting a more clear picture of the top prospects in the upcoming class.

Now that the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball season is underway, we are getting a more clear picture of the top prospects in the upcoming class.

Former top recruits like Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs have made a great first impression and have confirmed why many already feel they are going to be solid future professionals in the NBA.

Of course, considering the unusual nature of the college basketball season, some players are struggling a bit more than others. The performance on the court will likely stray closer to the mean with a larger sample size as the year continues.

But to get a better sense of where everyone stands right now, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, The Athletic and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win to see where the prospects rank at the moment.

We highlighted the prospects who have been the biggest risers since we published our last edition of this exercise.

College basketball standouts who have most drastically improved their draft stock through the early parts of the season include Keon Johnson (Tennessee), James Bouknight (UCONN), Jared Butler (Baylor), Corey Kispert (Gonzaga), Day’Ron Sharpe (UNC), Aaron Henry (Michigan State), Ayo Dosunmu (Illinois), Marcus Bagley (Arizona State), Moussa Cisse (Memphis), Charles Bassey (Western Kentucky), Jason Preston (Ohio) and Luka Garza (Iowa).

Below are the rankings based on the latest mock drafts from top analysts and experts:

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

2021 NBA Mock Draft: Predicting all 60 picks, starting with Cade Cunningham

Now that the 2020-21 NCAA Men’s Basketball season is in full swing, we examined what the 2021 NBA draft class is shaping up to look like.

Now that the 2020-21 NCAA Men’s Basketball season is in full swing, we examined what the 2021 NBA draft class is shaping up to look like.

Consider this an introduction to the top players in college, as well as those on the inaugural NBA G League Ignite team, a new developmental team that plays exhibitions and is meant to serve as an alternative to college for some players. We’ll also look at international prospects who are playing abroad.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, this is going to be an unusual season for all hopeful pros. The bizarre offseason made it hard to get in the swing of things and some may struggle early as they adjust accordingly. As they already have been, games will inevitably be postponed or outright canceled.

Even in a normal season, a mock draft this early is a bold move. With these circumstances in mind, our mock draft is obviously going to look very different from how the actual night will shake out next offseason.

But it does offer a general starting range to encapsulate where the top prospects may be selected if they draft were held now. It also gives some insight on the kinds of players who may be available when your favorite team is on the clock.

The draft order was determined by projected wins from ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, whose projected real plus-minus has “outperformed” the over-under figures from Las Vegas since 2015. Pick swaps and trades were pulled from the future draft picks section on RealGM.

Note that all conversations with NBA scouts mentioned in the article were held under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on behalf of their teams.

All relevant statistics are from BartTorvik.com, KenPom.com, Sports-Reference, RealGM and Synergy Sports Tech. Statistics for 2020-21 college basketball freshmen were calculated from their most recent AAU season via Open Look Analytics.

Listen to Ohio guard Jason Preston’s absolutely incredible story

It’s unbelivable.

There are Cinderalla stories in sports, and then there’s Ohio point guard Jason Preston’s story. It’s absolutely incredible.

Preston had the biggest game of his career against No. 8 Illinois with 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds on Friday night. Ohio lost the game 77-75, but Preston still had a best career performance that will certainly boost his draft stock quite a bit.

But his performance wasn’t the biggest highlight of the night. Instead, the most memorable moment of the game was when the Kevin Kugler and Stephen Bardo revealed the story of how he got to the point that he did. Every single detail of the story is mind blowing.

Take a listen.

“Jason Preston, this is high school now, he’s living in Orlando with his mom’s best friend’s son in an apartment. He’s 6 foot tall, 140 pounds as a senior in high school averaging just two points per game. He was going to UCF, just as a student. He wasn’t going to play ball.”

It doesn’t stop there, though. He ended up being coaxed into prep school by a coach after playing AAU.

“He goes to prep school. They have four teams. The A team is the best team, the B team is basically just the guys at the Y playing ball. He goes to the C team, plays well. They move him to the B team, still plays well. Pushes him to the A team. But he goes back to the C team, posts a triple double…makes his own highlight tape. Puts the highlight tape on Twitter. It got him an offer from Ohio and Longwood.” 

Just incredible, man. What a story. Twitter absolutely loved it.