The 2024 NBA Draft Class is beginning to take shape.
UConn center Donovan Clingan, a key piece of the team’s historic back-to-back National Championship runs, is among several players who announced that they are entering the NBA draft this week.
“I’ll be pursuing the lifelong dream of mine to play in the NBA and will be entering my name in the 2024 NBA Draft!!” he wrote in a statement he shared to X with the caption “#32 Out.”
“It will be very hard for me to leave my brothers after all the success these past two years, but the time is NOW!!” he added.
Clingan, a 20-year-old 7-foot-2 big man from Bristol, Connecticut, averaged 13 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game during his sophomore campaign.
He earned an All-American honorable mentions status and was named to the All-Tournament Team for his latest run during March Madness that saw the Huskies knock off Perdue.
Clingan averaged 15.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game while shooting 64.5 percent from the field during six NCAA Tournament games this year.
He notably blocked eight shots against Northwestern in the second round and recorded 18 points and four blocks in the Huskies’ Final Four victory over Alabama to send them to the national championship.
In the title game, Clingan put up 11 points, five boards and one block, helping lead UConn to a 75-60 victory.
Clingan is expected to be a lottery pick in the NBA Draft and has a shot at going No. 1 overall, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Joining him in the class, among others, is Alex Sarr, a native of France who is also in the mix to be selected No. 1 overall.
Sarr, a 7-foot-1 center who will turn 19 in late April, played this past season for the Perth Wildcats of the competitive Australian Basketball League.
Sarr averaged 9.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in just 17.2 minutes per contest and was top five in shot-blocking with 32 rejections, which averaged out to 1.3 per game on the year.
Duke standouts Kyle Filipowski and Jared McCain are also entering the draft.
Filipowski, a 7-foot Middletown, New York native who played at Fordham Prep during his sophomore high school season, was a consensus Second-Team All-American this past season.
The projected first-round center averaged 15.8 points and 8.6 rebounds across two seasons in college, reaching the Elite Eight this past season.
The 6-foot-3 McCain logged 14.3 points per contest in his freshman and lone season at Duke, also grabbing five boards per appearance.
McCain is also expected to be selected in the first round.
