FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas men’s basketball forward Adou Thiero is staying in the NBA Draft, per a report from On3. The junior forward, who followed coach John Calipari from Kentucky, was the Razorbacks’ leading scorer and rebounder this past season with 15.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game.
He missed eight of the final nine games of the season with a hyperextended knee but briefly returned in the season-ending defeat to Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament.
Most NBA Draft projections anticipate Thiero will be taken early in the second round. ESPN has Thiero going at No. 34 overall to the Charlotte Hornets and The Athletic projects him going at No. 38 to the San Antonio Spurs.
The NBA Draft is June 25-26 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Thiero was the last of the three Arkansas players to enter the draft to come to a final decision. Boogie Fland withdrew and transferred to Florida and Karter Knox withdrew and returned to the Razorbacks.
Thiero recently said he was leaning toward staying in the draft but that a collegiate return was possible.
The deadline to withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to college is 10:59 p.m. Central on Wednesday.
Arkansas has a returning cast that consists of rotation players Knox, D.J. Wagner, Trevon Brazile and Billy Richmond. The Razorbacks have signed Florida State transfer forward Malique Ewin and South Carolina transfer forward Nick Pringle to go with the No. 6 freshman class that includes Darius Acuff, Meleek Thomas, Isaiah Sealy and former professional Karim Rtail.
Nelly Davis and Jonas Aidoo exhausted their eligibility from the 2024-25 team that made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Fland and Zvonimir Ivisic, who has committed to Illinois, are the lone rotational players to leave in the portal.
Calipari did not close the door on potentially adding another player in the NCAA transfer portal when asked about it during the One Razorback Roadshow in Memphis on May 13. He said some of that decision depended on what Knox decided to do.
“We could do something,” he said. “If there’s a special young man out there we know could fit with this group, yeah, we’d consider it.”
