Kaleb Wesson declares for NBA Draft, will sign with agent

While word had been leaking out that Ohio State forward Kaleb Wesson would again be going through the NBA evaluation process, on Wednesday, the rising senior announced on Twitter that he intends to sign with an agent, however, that doesn’t officially close the door on his collegiate basketball career.

As The columbus Dispatch’s Adam Jardy reported earlier this week, with the new rules in place for the NBA Draft evaluation process, Wesson can sign with a certified agent, and then come back to school, but the tenor of his post sure makes it sound like his time in the Scarlet and Gray is over.

In three seasons with the Buckeyes, the younger of OSU’s two Wesson brothers averaged 12.9 points and 7 rebounds per game. In the pandemic shortened 2019-20 season, he was putting up 14 points and 9.3 boards per contest.

Wesson’s departure puts the Buckeyes in a position, where they will likely be looking to a hopefully healthy Kyle Young as their primary big man. With the transfer of Alonzo Gaffney, rising sophomore E.J. Liddell and junior transfers Justice Sueing and Seth Towns are the next “big” men available for Chris Holtmann’s squad. However, Liddell and Sueing are just 6’6 and Towns is 6’7.

Holtmann has spoken about liking to be led by veterans, but he is losing a major upperclassman piece in Kaleb Wesson. His brother Andre Wesson was the only senior on the ‘19-20 team.

Kaleb explored the NBA Draft following the 2018-19 season, but chose to return to Columbus for his junior season. In doing so, he lost upwards of 35 pounds (had you heard about that? I don’t think anyone talked about it at all this season), and dramatically improved his shooting abilities, hitting on 42.5 percent of his 106 three-point attempts on the campaign.

Good luck to Kaleb next season, whether that is at the next level, or back in C-Bus.