Two other starters, 6-3 junior guard A.J. That moved them from the departing list to the returning list, which in turn moved the Spartans up my rankings. Two seniors, 6-1 guard Tyson Walker and 6-8 forward Malik Hall, announced last month that they are returning for a super senior season. As a result of Filipowski’s decision, Duke’s top-ranked recruit, Mackenzie Mgbako, backed out of his commitment, but all four remaining freshmen were ranked in the top 20 of the 247Sports Composite.

Senior point guard Jeremy Roach declared for the NBA Draft but retained his eligibility and was not invited to the combine. Sophomores Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell, who were both projected as returnees in my previous ranking, likewise decided to return. Another player previously listed as a departure, 6-10 senior forward Ryan Young, will be back for a super senior year. A hip injury that required surgery was a factor in Filipowski’s decision to return to Durham, but assuming he is fully healthy, Filipowski will enter next season as a national Player of the Year candidate. It’s not often a player turns down a chance to be a lottery pick, but that’s what Duke’s 7-foot sophomore forward Kyle Filipowski did last month. (All players are listed by the year they will be in 2023-24.) 1. In the meantime, here is the correct order of the top 25 teams in college basketball, as of today: So that will give me yet another chance to update this ranking in a few weeks. The deadline for draft decisions is May 31, and there are still a few transfer and recruiting shoes to drop. It’s not a perfect system, but it takes out a lot of the guesswork. So I made my roster projections accordingly: Invitees are leaving, the ones who weren’t invited are coming back. I normally rely on mock drafts to project who will stay and who will return, but the NBA made that exercise a lot simpler on Wednesday when it released the list of 78 players who will be invited to the league’s predraft combine in Chicago next week. Since there are only 60 slots available, the vast majority of those players will be in college next season. There are 242 underclassmen who declared themselves eligible this year. To be sure, there is still some movement to come, particularly with respect to the NBA Draft.

The Heart of Texas by R.J. Scott