Keion Brooks plans on staying in NBA Draft, but not ruling out return to college -- even Kentucky

Keion Brooks has less than two weeks to decide whether or not he’s staying in the NBA Draft or returning to college. After showing off his skills at the NBA G-League Elite Camp earlier this week, Brooks says that he wants to remain in the draft, but is keeping all of his options open — including a return to Kentucky. The junior forward entered the transfer portal on April 29.

“I’m open to everyone,” Brooks told 247 Sports’ Travis Branham. “Kentucky was good to me and I’m not closing the book on the possibility of going back there. The transfer portal is to make sure all my options are open and am not pigeonholed. Kentucky has been good to me and the relationship is still great.”

Brooks said his family is fielding calls about potential transfer options while he focuses on the draft process. So far, they’ve heard from Notre Dame, Arizona, and Washington. Arizona and Washington were also among the schools On3’s Jamie Shaw heard could be potential landing spots for Brooks last week. But, to be clear, Brooks wants to go pro and will likely seize any opportunity that comes his way.

“The odds of me staying in the Draft are pretty high,” he told Branham. “Going back to college is something that I quite frankly don’t plan on doing.”

We’ll know for sure what Brooks will do on June 1, the NCAA’s deadline to withdraw from the draft to retain college eligibility. Over three seasons as a Wildcat, he averaged 8.3 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. In 2021-22, he started in 33 of Kentucky’s 34 games, scoring in double figures 17 times. He averaged a career-best 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 49.1 percent from the field.