Meechie Johnson to withdraw from NBA Draft, return to South Carolina
South Carolina guard Meechie Johnson will officially withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to school for the 2023-24 season, he announced Tuesday on Twitter.
That news comes as no surprise as Johnson told GamecockCentral at the end of the Gamecocks’ regular season that he’d be returning for next year.
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“One hundred percent. Coach (Lamont) Paris has a great plan. I know some of these guys will be back too, I feel comfortable here,” Johnson said then. “I never would want to play for another coach and I’ll never be in a better situation. It’s great to be here at South Carolina. It’s far from home but everyone has welcomed me like family. There’s no other place I’d rather be. For real.”
In his first year with South Carolina, Johnson started 29 of 30 games and was second on the team with 12.7 points per game and a team-high 3.7 assists per game.
Johnson joined the South Carolina program via the transfer portal last offseason after two seasons at Ohio State.
The former four-star prospect played in 43 games at Ohio State (2020-22) with five starts.
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The 6-foot-2, 172-pound Johnson originally joined Ohio State as a highly recruited guard prospect from Garfield Heights in Cleveland, Oh.
After an ACL injury cut his high school career short, Johnson joined the Ohio State program midway through the 2020-21 to get a head start.
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The On3Consensus — a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies — ranked Johnson as the No. 91 overall prospect and No. 21 point guard in the 2020 class.
More on the 2023 NBA Draft
The 2023 NBA Draft is set to take place on Thursday, June 22, 2023, in Brooklyn at Barclays Center. Round 1 of the draft will be announced by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, while Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum is expected to handle the second round of picks.
To be eligible for the NBA Draft, players must be at least 19 years in age during the calendar year that the draft is held and at least one NBA season from their high school graduation date, or the date that would have been if they are not graduated. It is not required that player spend that one year playing college basketball, though. Players can play in either college, abroad, or the G League Ignite if they choose so.
While this is a significant change from what the rules once were, players are eligible to enter their names into the NBA Draft pool and explore their options by hiring an agent to go through the process, while still keeping their college eligibility. The deadline to make that move is on April 23 beginning at 11:59 p.m. ET. Players have until June 12 at 5 p.m. ET to withdraw their name from the pool and return to college.
The NBA Draft Lottery will be held on May 16, which is also the start of the NBA Conference Finals.
