Miami guard Isaiah Wong told ESPN he will withdraw his name from the 2021 NBA draft and return to the Hurricanes for his junior season.
"Going into the NBA draft process for me was more about hearing what teams were saying what I needed to work on in order to improve my draft stock," Wong said Tuesday. "That's what I've been trying to implement all summer."
Wong was named third team All-ACC last season after averaging 17.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 35 minutes per game. As one of just three ACC all-conference members returning, he'll likely be a candidate for preseason player of the year honors next season.
After a quiet freshman season, the 6-foot-3 Wong emerged as one of the top-scoring sophomores in the country among power-conference players.
"My whole life I've never been projected as anything. I always had to prove myself every step of the way," he said. "Coming into the ACC, I had a great opportunity to be successful in our system. I didn't worry about what people were saying. I was just focused on my game."
Wong returns to a Miami team hoping to bounce back from an injury-riddled 2020-21 campaign. The Hurricanes return second-leading scorer Kameron McGusty, a super senior, and are among the several finalists in the recruitment on Jalen Duren, the No. 2 recruit in the 2022 class, who may elect to graduate high school early and enroll in college this summer.
"Next year we should be much better as we have some really good players coming in," Wong said. "We have the potential to do some great things at Miami next season."
Jonathan Givony is an NBA Draft expert and the founder and co-owner of DraftExpress.com, a private scouting and analytics service utilized by NBA, NCAA and International teams.