Three Arizona Wildcats found themselves on the NBA’s official list of early entry candidates for the 2024 draft, but Caleb Love wasn’t one of them.
It appears to have been an oversight on someone’s part. Love announced on April 16 that he would be entering his name into the draft while maintaining his eligibility.
CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander reports he is still expected to declare for the draft to go through the process. Norlander adds that Love’s agent is speaking to the league office about why his client was left off the list.
Crazy thing is the NBA is requiring teams to submit their ballots for which players they’d like to see invited to the NBA Combine and G League Elite Camp by tomorrow, so several players could miss being invited to Chicago altogether due to a clerical error at the league office. https://t.co/pVrdQDHe8E
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 30, 2024
Fellow Wildcats Pelle Larsson, K.J. Lewis and Jaden Bradley were among 195 players submitted as candidates for the June 27 draft. They can join former Arizona forward Keshad Johnson, who is out of college eligibility.
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Grand Canyon’s Tyon Grant-Foster is also on the list.
To retain their college eligibility under NCAA rules, those players have until May 29 to withdraw.
Love, 22, averaged 18.0 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists in his first year at Arizona. The guard spent his prior three seasons with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
He was an AP Third Team All-American with the Wildcats.
Larsson is expected to remain in the draft and said he would forgo his NCAA eligibility.
Lewis was a surprise early entry candidate who could return. He made Arizona’s rotation as a freshman to average 6.1 points and 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, but he likely could help his draft stock by returning and sliding into a starting role with the Wildcats.
Bradley also played off the bench and with the transfer of Kylan Boswell was projected to be a starter.
He averaged 7.0 points and 2.0 assists off the bench but didn’t start in 36 games. It was Bradley’s first year with Arizona after starting 22 of 37 games as a freshman with Alabama in 2022-23.
Grand Canyon’s Grant-Foster finds himself labeled an early entrant candidate as a 24-year-old because a serious heart issue following his freshman year at Kansas kept him away from the court for two years.
Grant-Foster averaged 20.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Antelopes as they made it into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.