NBA Draft: List of early entry players who returned to college

Many draft prospects who were potentially going to be selected in the 2023 NBA Draft have decided to return to college

The 2023 NBA Draft is set to take place in Barclays Center on June 22, exactly three weeks from now. Victor Wembanyama, Brandon Miller, Scoot Henderson and many of the other top prospects in this year's draft will be hearing their names called, but there are plenty other potential prospects who will wait until next year to hear their name called.

Wednesday, May 31 marked the final day for those who applied for the draft as “early entry” to withdraw and return to college. The NBA announced that a total of 108 players notified the league that they wish to be removed from this year's draft list in order to remain NCAA eligible.

Of the 108 players pulling out of this year's draft, several of them ranked inside the Top-100 of ClutchPoints' 2023 NBA Big Board 2.0 and five of them were listed in ClutchPoints' 2023 NBA Mock Draft 2.0 released earlier this week.

Below is a list of prospects that withdrew from this year's draft that were featured on the big board with their recent draft ranking:

Dillon Mitchell (Texas, ranked #40)
Terrence Shannon Jr. (Illinois, #48)
Reece Beekman (Virginia – #51)
DaRon Holmes (Dayton, #59)
Adem Bona (UCLA, #61)
Cole Hawkins (Illinois, #63)
Zach Edey (Purdue, #65)
Trey Alexander (Creighton, #69)
Arthur Kaluma (Creighton, #70)
Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton, #73)
Johni Broome (Auburn, #75)
Matthew Murrell (Ole Miss, #76)
Kevin McCullar (Kansas, #79)
Jalen Bridges (Baylor, #80)
PJ Hall (Clemson, #83)
Grant Nelson (North Dakota State, #91)
Judah Mintz (Syracuse, #92)
Hakim Hart (Maryland, #93)
Tyler Burton (Richmond, #94)
Josiah-Jordan James (Tennessee, #95)
Cliff Omoruyi (Rutgers, #96)
Dillon Jones (Weber State, #100)

Zach Edey (Purdue), Terrence Shannon Jr. (Illinois) and Dillon Mitchell (Texas) are the three biggest names that stand out on this list, as all three were projected to be second-round picks in this year's draft. Mitchell was getting consideration to be a late first-round prospect as a result of his explosiveness and athleticism.

These three players will return to college, along with those listed above, and will likely be first-round prospects by the time the 2024 draft process begins next year.