Arizona freshman Rawle Alkins declares for NBA Draft, does not sign with agent

Arizona Wildcats freshman Rawle Alkins will test the NBA Draft waters, he announced in a tweet on Wednesday.

🙏🏿 #SAVAGELIFE pic.twitter.com/ATmascl9ii

— Rawle Alkins (@Iam_RawleAlkins) April 12, 2017

By not signing with an agent, Alkins, like his teammate Chance Comanche (who declared for the draft last week) will have the opportunity to return to Arizona. The deadline to withdraw from the draft is 10 days after the NBA Draft Combine, which is from May 9 to 14.

Freshmen Lauri Markkanen and Kobi Simmons have also declared for the draft, though each decided to hire an agent.

Alkins was the Wildcats’ third-leading scorer in 2017, averaging 10.9 points in 28 minutes per game. He shot 46.3 percent from the field and 37 percent from three while also accumulating 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound forward’s best stretch of play came early in the season, when he scored in double figures for nine straight games between Nov. 30 and Jan. 1, averaging 14.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists over that period.

Alkins also had two perfect shooting games for the Wildcats, going 5-of-5 in a late February win over USC and 8-of-8 in Arizona’s first-round NCAA Tournament victory over the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, when he also set a career high with 20 points.

DraftExpress currently lists the 19-year-old as the 82nd-best prospect and projects that he will go undrafted, while ESPN draft analyst Chad Ford has him ranked slightly higher at 74th overall.

Alkins came to Arizona as a highly-touted five-star recruit out of Middle Village, New York and was ranked by 247Sports as the 23rd best recruit in his class, one spot behind fellow Markkanen.