Men's Basketball

WVU’s Konate Takes Another Step Towards The NBA

April 22, 2019

West Virginia forward Sagaba Konate awaits a post pass

WVU’s Konate Takes Another Step Towards The NBA

West Virginia University men’s basketball forward Sagaba Konate has moved on to the next step in making himself available for the 2019 NBA draft.

A few weeks ago the Mountaineer junior took the first step in the process by submitting the paperwork needed to request an evaluation for the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee.

Then on Monday, Konate took the next step and submitted his name for the 2019 NBA Draft, and he plans to sign with an agent.

That still does not completely slam the door on his college career. April 21 was the deadline to declare for the NBA draft, but that doesn’t mean Konate can’t still reverse course. As long as he signs with an NCAA-certified agent, he can withdraw from the draft by May 29 – at which time he also must disassociate from his agent. If he signs with a non-NCAA-certified agent, he does not have the option of returning to college.

Undergraduates who do not withdraw by May 29 can also still return to school if they do not get picked in either of the two rounds of the NBA Draft, which this year will be conducted on June 20. If they are selected in any spot in the draft, their college careers are over.

Also, if undrafted, an underclassmen can try another professional avenue, be it the G League or a foreign league, but the avenue would remain for them to return to college as well.

Thus while Konate has taken a second step close to attempting to play professional basketball next year, he does still have an open door to return to West Virginia, at least for now.

The junior from Bamako, Mali, played in eight games in 2018-19, averaging 13.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Against Pitt on Dec. 8, Konate set the WVU career record for blocked shots with 191. His junior season was hampered by a knee injury, which kept him from playing in the Mountaineers final 27 games this past year.

During his West Virginia career, Konate has scored 650 points and grabbed 450 rebounds.

“Every kid who plays basketball growing up has a dream of playing in the NBA,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “We wish Sags nothing but the best as he chases that dream.”

This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated by SCMountaineer.

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April 22, 2019 at 2:22 pm #89559

Greg Hunter

WVU’s Konate Takes Another Step Towards The NBA West Virginia University men’s basketball forward Sagaba Konate has moved on to the next step in makin
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April 22, 2019 at 2:45 pm #89563

Butlereer

I don’t get the conflict with the two dates to withdraw. May 29 is the withdraw date and disassociate from a certified agent to go back to school.

But….. they can still enter the draft and don’t get picked on June 20 they can still come back to school if they immediately disassociate from a certified agent.

Aren’t the June 20 date requirements the same as May 29? So why not hire a certified agent and take your chances to get drafted? I can see if you think you’ll test the waters and wait till next year like Sags did, but if you’re ready to go, you’re ready to go. If you don’t get drafted you still can go back to school.

Secondly, what’s up with the “certified agents” vs non certified agents? Is this a way of forcing kids to pick the NBA “friends” vs having their own lawyer or family represent them? This seems a little too strange. Good Old Boy Network at it’s best.

April 22, 2019 at 4:25 pm #89568

Greg Hunter

If a player stays in the NBA draft pool past May 29, at that point their choice of returning to a school is basically out of their hands. If they are drafted on June 20, they can not return to college. If they go undrafted, then they can return if they want to do so. So those two dates are very different.

As for Konate, I think he remains in the draft pool and will try to play professionally next year somewhere. I had thought previously there was a chance he would return to WVU. Now I think the odds of him returning are slim.

April 22, 2019 at 4:58 pm #89570

irishladdy

Aren’t the June 20 date requirements the same as May 29? So why not hire a certified agent and take your chances to get drafted? I can see if you think you’ll test the waters and wait till next year like Sags did, but if you’re ready to go, you’re ready to go. If you don’t get drafted you still can go back to school.

It would be for any player that would rather ensure they go back to college as opposed to being the last pick in the draft. If you remove yourself prior to the draft, you remove the possibility of being unhappy with how low of a pick you were without the ability to go back to improve upon it.

April 23, 2019 at 7:00 am #89583

Kevin Kinder

Secondly, what’s up with the “certified agents” vs non certified agents? Is this a way of forcing kids to pick the NBA “friends” vs having their own lawyer or family represent them? This seems a little too strange. Good Old Boy Network at it’s best.

In this area, agents are certified by the NCAA. I don’t know what the certification process is, but it is supposed to ensure tha the agents understand the process so they hopefully won’t steer the kid wrong, and so that your aunt from Pomona that has no idea what an agent should do doesn’t mess up your career.

April 24, 2019 at 8:35 am #89617

SCMountaineer

One requirement, from my understanding, is that only players that have been invited to the NBA combine and gone undrafted may return to school. So the players not invited have to decide before the draft whether to take their chances on being drafted and withdrawing from the draft. Hence the two different dates.

One problem with the agents that I see is that they have the incentive to not have their clients return to their schools. For example, lets say Konate does not get drafted. If he wants to return to school he must get rid of the agent. The agent might think there is a possibility that next year Konate might hire a different agent because of the results of this year. So, it is in agents interest for Konate to play professionally this year.
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