Jake LaRavia, who helped turn around the Wake Forest men’s basketball program in his one season in Winston-Salem, will not be coming back.
LaRavia, on his Twitter feed Tuesday night, announced that he will keep himself in the NBA Draft. That’s no surprise since reports from the NBA Draft Combine were positive on the 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward.
A mock draft posted Tuesday at CBSSpots.com projected LaRavia as the No. 25 pick in the first round by San Antonio. A new mock draft for ESPN+ subscribers at ESPN.com predicts LaRavia as the No. 32 pick, or No. 2 in the second round, by Orlando.
College players have until 11:59 p.m. EDT Wednesday to withdraw from draft consideration and retain NCAA eligibility.
LaRavia, who is from Indianapolis, was one of Coach Steve Forbes’ transfers who jumped into last season’s starting lineup and helped the Deacons improve to 25-10 overall and reach the NIT.
He averaged 14.6 points per game, second on the team to ACC player of the year Alondes Williams, and led the Demon Deacons with 6.6 rebounds.
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In his tweet LaRavia wrote: “Where do I begin? I want to say Thank You God. When I started this journey I was just a kid from Indiana with a dream of playing in the NBA. Through hard work, self belief and support from countless family, friends, teammates and coaches, I find myself closer than I’ve ever been to achieving that dream.”
The dream, of course, is the NBA.
“Having said that,” he wrote, “I will be forgoing my remainder of my eligibility at Wake Forest to play in the NBA next year.”
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