Ask David Glenn:
Upcoming Deadlines For ACC Basketball,
NCAA Transfer Portal, 2024 NBA Draft, Etc.
By Mike Waddell
North Carolina Sports Network
Award-winning sports broadcaster and journalist David Glenn, the director of content here at the North Carolina Sports Network, regularly answers questions directly from his followers, listeners and viewers.
DG’s responses may appear here at the NCSports.com website, on his regular David Glenn Show podcasts or NCSN’s other on-demand audio offerings, and/or on our brand-new YouTube channel, which recently went from 1,000 subscribers to more than 4,000 subscribers in the roughly one-month-long period otherwise known as March Madness.
Anyone can submit a question to DG via the following email address: [email protected]. Reminder: He/we can’t respond to every email personally (although DG often does!), but all thoughtful inquiries will be considered for inclusion in our articles, podcasts and/or video content.
DG: I still miss your daily radio show, but I really enjoy your new YouTube channel and everything you’re doing with the North Carolina Sports Network.
I have a lot of questions for you, but for now I’ll limit myself to this one, because I can’t keep track of how this stuff works anymore, and I figured you would know the answer.
What are the important deadlines and timeframes to remember as we get closer and closer to knowing which players are staying/leaving and what ACC basketball is going to look like next season?
— R. Hester, Charlotte, N.C.
DG: First, thank you for writing, and for your kind words.
While I can’t say I miss hosting 250 radio shows a year, because I’m just at a different stage of life now, I do miss my producers (Jerod Brooks, Hayes Permar and Daron Vaught remain my close friends), members of my staff (ditto) and many from our state-wide audience, which gradually grew to include a lot of friends and friendly faces/voices over 20-plus years.
To answer your specific question, let me first give you a quick outline. Then, I’ll elaborate on various topics that go beyond your inquiry but have been filling my inbox in recent weeks.
Here’s the outline:
April 18: NBA deadline to apply for Undergraduate Advisory Committee
April 27: NBA deadline to declare for draft
May 1: NCAA’s 2024 transfer portal window closes
May 12-19: Draft combine (Chicago)
May 29: NCAA draft withdrawal deadline
June 16: NBA draft withdrawal deadline
June 26-27: 2024 NBA Draft (Brooklyn)
Regarding the NBA’s early entry deadline (April 27), some ACC guys have announced their decisions already; others haven’t said a word yet, at least not publicly.
Miami’s senior center Norchad Omier, an All-ACC player who could have played a fifth year of college basketball next season under the NCAA’s COVID-related rules, has announced that he is moving on. Miami’s freshman guard Kyshawn George, who has been told he might be a first-round NBA pick, has said he’s leaving the Hurricanes, too.
During the season, Virginia’s All-ACC point guard, Reece Beekman, said the 2023-24 season would be his last as a college player, and that he’s moving on from the Cavaliers. Obviously, that’s a big deal in Charlottesville, as they try to pick up the pieces from a very strange season without their best player.
Pitt’s freshman point guard, Bub Carrington, who made the ACC’s 2024 All-Freshman team, has at least a chance to be a first-round NBA selection, and he’s another confirmed early NBA entry.
California’s best player, a junior wing named Jaylon Tyson, also has entered the draft early as a possible first-round pick, so that obviously impacts the Bears’ initial ACC season in a negative way.
As I write this, we haven’t heard officially from Duke’s sophomore forward Kyle Filipowski or Duke’s freshman guard Jared McCain, but both are projected as first-round NBA locks — possibly even lottery picks — so they’re expected to leave the Blue Devils, but again they haven’t announced anything yet.
There are other ACC guys who probably would be drafted if they came out this year — it’s NOT considered a very strong draft — but they haven’t announced anything yet, either.
On that list I would put Syracuse’s sophomore point guard, Judah Mintz, a second-team All-ACC selection this year; Wake Forest’s junior guard, Hunter Sallis, who had a first-team All-ACC break-out year with the Demon Deacons after being a backup for two years at Gonzaga; Miami’s junior guard, Wooga Poplar, a guy some NBA scouts really like a lot; North Carolina’s junior forward Harrison Ingram, a third-team All-ACC pick with the Tar Heels this season after transferring in from Stanford; and Virginia’s sophomore forward Ryan Dunn, a very limited offensive player but one of the best defensive players in the entire country. Despite his modest offensive numbers, Dunn is definitely on the NBA’s radar, too.
There’s some level of NBA interest in all of the guys I just listed; it’s just a matter of whether they’d end up being picked in the first round, the second round or not at all.
Reminder: Only first-round draft picks automatically get guaranteed millions of dollars. Second-round picks and undrafted free agents can try to negotiate for guaranteed money, but the dollars are obviously much lower, and again the money is not automatically guaranteed for those players.
The only two ACC guys who were promised first-round NBA status last year, Duke’s freshman center Dereck Lively and freshman forward Dariq Whitehead, both jumped to the league.
Of course, some ACC guys were told they were second-rounders or that they wouldn’t be selected at all, and they jumped, too. The 2023 ACC Player of the Year, Miami guard Isaiah Wong, was picked in the second round last year. NC State guard Terquavion Smith wasn’t selected in the draft, but he signed with the 76ers as a free agent.
So, some guys know they’re leaving regardless of their projected draft status, while other guys are waiting for feedback from NBA people.
Before we move on from the NBA draft, I need to mention one more deadline and one more group of players.
That NBA early entry deadline — April 27 — isn’t far away. Just remember we may not have all of these answers until closer to May 29, which is the NCAA’s deadline for withdrawing from the NBA Draft. That second deadline is still a month and a half away, at this writing.
The final group of players I need to mention here, with professional basketball in mind, is the group of guys who just finished their fourth season of college basketball but who used one of those four seasons of eligibility during the 2020-21 campaign, or the so-called COVID season. Remember, NCAA rules allow all of those guys another year of eligibility if they want it, even if they just finished what we would traditionally call their senior season.
Think of the names on this list and the impacts they could have if they played a fifth season, the way UNC center Armando Bacot, UNC guard Cormac Ryan, Clemson guard Joe Girard, Boston College center Quinten Post, Virginia Tech guard Hunter Cattoor and NC State’s unforgettable trio of DJ Burns, DJ Horne and Casey Morsell just did this past season.
Those with the option of what we call a “Super Senior” year in 2024-25 include UNC guard RJ Davis (the 2024 ACC Player of the Year), Clemson forward PJ Hall (another first-team All-ACC selection), Duke guard Jeremy Roach (a third-team All-ACC honoree), Wake Forest forward Andrew Carr (a very good player for the Demon Deacons), Clemson point guard Chase Hunter (a huge factor in the Tigers’ recent run to the Elite Eight), Pitt guard Ishmael Leggett (the ACC’s Sixth Man of the Year), and three other important guys at NC State — starting point guard Michael O’Connell, starting power forward Mo Diarra, and veteran guard Kam Woods. Woods didn’t play much for the Wolfpack this past season but was an All-CAA player for North Carolina A&T last year; he could play a lot for the Pack in 2024-25, with Horne and Morsell moving on from the backcourt. (UPDATE: Woods entered the transfer portal on April 10.)
Miami’s veteran point guard, Nijel Pack, has already said he will use his extra COVID year of eligibility. Some of the Hurricanes’ incoming transfers will be fifth-year COVID guys, too.
However, most of these other possible “Super Seniors” haven’t announced their intentions yet, and obviously their decisions will impact the ACC’s 2024-25 season in very significant ways.
One last thing, since we’re talking about deadlines here.
The last day a men’s basketball player can enter his name in the transfer portal, under the revised NCAA rules, is May 1. If a player wants to transfer but misses that deadline, he may not be immediately eligible at his new school.
So, basically, we’ll know all the guys who intend to transfer by May 1, but that doesn’t mean we’ll have everyone’s choice of a new school by May 1.
Some loose ends will linger well into the latter part of the spring and, occasionally, even into the summer months.
