Oakland basketball star Trey Townsend to declare for NBA draft

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Trey Townsend, the Horizon League MVP and man now affectionately known as “Mr. Oakland” due to his lifelong ties to the program, has decided to forego his final year of eligibility and enter his name into the 2024 NBA draft, a source with knowledge of the situation told the Free Press on Thursday.

Townsend can still return to college next season, as long as he withdrawals by June 16.

Townsend, the son of Skip Townsend, one of longtime coach Greg Kampe’s first recruits to Rochester in the late 1980s, and his mother, Nicole Leigh, who also played basketball during her collegiate days for the Grizzlies, was a relative unknown a month ago, before he burst onto the scene in the Horizon League championship game, and even more on the national radar in the NCAA tournament.

Oakland Golden Grizzlies forward Trey Townsend (4) shoots the ball against the Kentucky Wildcats in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Thursday, March 21, 2024.

Townsend, who averaged a career-high 17.3 points and 5.9 rebounds per game this season, put up a career-high 38 points with 13 rebounds in that title game against Milwaukee, then continued his legendary story the following weekend.

Though Jack Gohlke became the folk hero when 14-seed Oakland upset 3-seed Kentucky last Thrusday at PPG Paints Arena in downtown Pittsburgh; there’s no question it wouldn’t have happened without Townsend. The 6-foot-6 power forward put up 17 points and 12 rebounds and held his own against Kentucky’s front court of Tre Mitchell and Zvonimir Ivisic.

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He followed that up with an even bigger performance, when he scored 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a heartbreaking Round of 32 loss to N.C. State in overtime, 79-73.

On Thursday, when Oakland had a season-ending ceremony at the O’Rena, and Kampe as well as players like Townsend, Gohlke, Chris Conway and DQ Cole thanked fans for…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/oakland-basketball-star-trey-townsend-192554991.html

Author : Detroit Free Press

Publish date : 2024-03-28 19:25:54

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