Three UK basketball players make ESPN’s first expanded list of 2025 NBA draft prospects
By Ben Roberts,
2 days ago
Two days after Kentucky held its annual Pro Day showcase for NBA scouts at Memorial Coliseum, an expanded list of the top 100 prospects for the 2025 draft dropped on ESPN.
That list was posted Wednesday morning and featured three UK basketball players, though none of them were actually ranked inside the range of picks for next year’s NBA draft, which will include a total of 58 selections.
Sharp-shooting guard Koby Brea was the top Cat mentioned, at No. 67 overall. Brea shot 49.8% from 3-point range at Dayton last season and enters the 2024-25 campaign as arguably the top perimeter shooter in all of college basketball.
Jaxson Robinson is No. 90 on the ESPN list. Robinson is the only player on this UK team who has played for new head coach Mark Pope, who spent the past two years with him at BYU, where Robinson — a 6-6 guard — was the Cougars’ leading scorer and Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year last season.
Sophomore forward Brandon Garrison — a transfer from Oklahoma State and 2023 McDonald’s All-American — was the final Wildcat mentioned at No. 96 overall. Garrison — a 6-10 post player — started 29 of 32 games for the Cowboys as a freshman.
UK guard Jaxson Robinson is ranked as the No. 90 overall prospect for the 2025 NBA draft in a preseason list from ESPN. Tasha Poullard/tpoullard@herald-leader.com
Duke freshman Cooper Flagg is the consensus choice to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft heading into the season, and he was the first player mentioned in ESPN’s rankings. Following Flagg on the list were Rutgers freshmen Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper — at No. 2 and 3, respectively — Baylor freshman VJ Edgecombe at No. 4 and 18-year-old French point guard Nolan Traore at No. 5.
Duke had three players in the top 10, with freshman wing Kon Knueppel at No. 6 and freshman center Khaman Maluach at No. 8 joining Flagg at the top of the draft. UK will play the Blue Devils on Nov. 12 in Atlanta as part of the Champions Classic.
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Kentucky has obviously been a staple of NBA draft night over the past 15 years under John Calipari, who left Lexington to take over as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks this offseason.
UK produced 50 total draft picks and at least one first-round selection in every season during Calipari’s tenure. His final Kentucky draft class was led by Reed Sheppard, who went to the Houston Rockets with the No. 3 overall pick.
Arkansas has five players on ESPN’s preseason top 100 list for 2025, though none are in first-round territory.
Freshman point guard Boogie Fland is No. 32 overall, with junior wing Adou Thiero at No. 40, sophomore big man Zvonimir Ivisic at No. 45, graduate big man Jonas Aidoo at No. 71 and graduate guard Johnell Davis at No. 99.
Fland was a member of UK’s 2024 recruiting class before Calipari’s departure, and Thiero and Ivisic are former Kentucky players who followed the head coach to Fayetteville.
Sophomore point guard D.J. Wagner — another former Cat who left for Arkansas, long regarded as the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2023 class — was not mentioned on ESPN’s top 100 list.
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