St. John’s freshman forward Moe Harkless is holding a press conference Monday afternoon at Madison Square Garden in which he is expected to announce his decision to enter the NBA Draft.
SNY.tv was the first to report in early February that Harkless might test the NBA waters.
DraftExpress.com has the 6-foot-8 Harkless listed as the No. 22 prospect in this year’s draft class.
“A lot of NBA people are really intrigued by him,” Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com told SNY.tv. “We need to see who enters to get a better feel for where his stock is exactly, but he’s a hot prospect right now.”
One veteran NBA scout told SNY.tv he expected Harkless to go in the “20-30” range in the draft.
“He’s a great athlete, great physical tools, built for the NBA game,” the scout said. “There’s a little bit of question on his strength and his readiness but he has a very good upside. He was up and down I thought this year. He had moments of brilliance and then came back to the pack.”
Harkless earned Big East Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 15.3 points and 8.6 rebounds during his only season in Queens. He ranked second in scoring among league rookies and first in rebounding.
With the departure of Harkless, St. John’s is expected to return its other core freshmen — D’Angelo Harrison, Amir Garrett, Phil Greene and Sir’Dominic Pointer.
They also have commitments from 6-8 forward JaKarr Sampson and 6-3 wing Felix Balamou.
Point guard Jamal Branch becomes eligible in December after transferring from Texas A&M.
The Johnnies are involved with several other players, including bigs Chris Obekpa and Orlando Sanchez and guards Carlos Morris, Marco Bourgault and Thaddeus Hall.
