Duke's Isaiah Evans Among 50 CBB Players to Withdraw from 2025 NBA Draft

The NBA announced 50 early-entry players who officially withdrew their names from the 2025 NBA draft on Friday.

Duke guard Isaiah Evans, Auburn guards Tahaad Pettiford and Chad Baker-Mazara, and the Florida trio of Alex Condon, Boogie Fland and Rueben Chinyelu were among the biggest names on the list.

June 15 is the early-entry withdrawal deadline for the 2025 NBA draft, which is 10 days before the draft itself. That means other early entrants still have two more weeks to decide whether they want to remain in the draft or return to school.

Evans' decision to return to Duke perhaps shouldn't come as much of a surprise since he should have the opportunity to play a significantly bigger role as a sophomore.

During his freshman season in 2024-25, Evans played in 36 games, but he averaged just 6.8 points and 1.1 rebounds in 13.7 minutes per contest.

Evans was sixth on the Blue Devils in scoring behind Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Tyrese Proctor, Sion James and Khaman Maluach, all of whom are in the 2025 NBA draft.

Evans, who was a 5-star prospect and the No. 13 overall recruit in the class of 2024, per 247Sports, figures to be a go-to player in 2025-26 along with incoming freshmen Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer and Nikolas Khamenia.

If Evans starts and receives far more playing time next season as expected, he has a chance to put himself in the first-round conversation for the 2026 draft.

Like Duke, Auburn and Florida were also Final Four teams last season, and they are getting some key players back as well.

Although they are losing reigning SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome to the draft, Pettiford and Baker-Mazara were both important contributors to an Auburn team that went 32-6 last season.

Baker-Mazara was second on the team in scoring last season with 12.3 points per game to go along with 3.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals.

Meanwhile, Pettiford was on the SEC All-Freshman Team by virtue of averaging 11.6 points, 3.0 assists and 2.2 rebounds per contest.

Florida won its third national championship in program history last season, and while the team's three leading scorers in Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard are all gone, the Gators are still trending toward being a top team next season.

Condon was the Gators' fourth-leading scorer and leading rebounder last season with averages of 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, while Chinyelu averaged 6.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per contest as the team's best pure center.

Fland spent his freshman season at Arkansas, averaging 13.5 points, 5.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game, but he transferred to Florida and has a chance to be part of a championship repeat next season.