UCLA’s Kevon Looney could make NBA draft decision soon

UPDATE: Kevon Looney is close to choosing his representation, according to RealGM, and has plans to declare for the NBA draft.

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Kevon Looney has not yet announced whether or not he will leave UCLA and declare for the NBA draft, but head coach Steve Alford doesn’t think the wait will last much longer.

“I think it’ll probably be a quicker decision versus something that’s going to be drawn out,” Alford said.

Although the 6-foot-9 freshman forward left the door open for a return to school last week, it’s difficult to imagine him turning down a chance to become a lottery pick this June. Looney was a double-double machine until he fractured his face in the Pac-12 Tournament, and had recorded seven of his 15 in his first 10 games. He finished the season averaging 11.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 41.5 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

The Milwaukee native is currently ranked the seventh-best prospect this year by ESPN’s Chad Ford, and projected as the 20th overall pick by DraftExpress.

“It’s hard to say he’ll come back if he’s projected a top-10, top-15 pick,” said point guard Bryce Alford. “There’s not a lot of kids that would probably come back.”

“But I think if there’s one person who would, it’d be Kevon. I think he came in here as a pretty shy kid, didn’t say much. The kid had a blast this year. He really opened up. He became as much of a jokester as Tony (Parker) by the end of the year. I thought he had a blast this year just like the rest of the guys. If there’s a kid that would come back in this situation, I think it’d be Kevon.”