Brian Bowen, the Louisville transfer who is now at South Carolina, was invited Friday to participate in this year's NBA Draft Combine, according to a report by Sports Illustrated.
The combine will be held May 16-20 in Chicago.
A full list of combine invites was not yet available Friday as expected, so it's unclear whether or not South Carolina's Chris Silva will join Bowen in Chicago.
Neither Bowen nor Silva has hired an agent, meaning both could return to the Gamecocks for the 2018-19 season. Bowen, if reinstated by the NCAA, would be a redshirt freshman. Silva would be a senior. The deadline for early entry college players to make their decision is May 30.
Bowen, a former McDonald’s All-American and Louisville signee at the center of the FBI’s probe into college basketball, declared for the draft earlier this month as a precautionary move in case the NCAA doesn’t make him eligible. The 6-foot-7 small forward is an intriguing NBA prospect as he hasn’t been watched by pro scouts in a game since the Jordan Brand Classic on April 14, 2017.
Bowen was ranked as the No. 13 player in the 2017 recruiting class by 247Sports.
“It’s going to be hard to draft a guy like that,” ESPN draft analyst Jonathan Givony told The State last week. “It’s not like he was this top 10 recruit, can’t-miss guy coming in. Kind of the position that he was in, the caliber of recruit that he was, I mean those guys, their track record is very hit or miss. Over the years, most of them aren’t one-and-dones. So to see him coming out after one year, I think that’s a tough proposition.”
Bowen is likely to work out for NBA teams over the next month to get a feel for his professional future. Same goes for Silva, a 6-9, 223-power forward.
The reigning SEC co-defensive player of the year led USC in scoring (14.3 points per game), rebounding (8.0) and blocks (1.4) in 2017-18. He led the country is free throw rate and finished second nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes.
He also recorded a team-high 87 turnovers and fouled out of five games. He’s attempted 13 3-pointers in his career, connecting on five of them.
“I think everybody loves his energy and his intensity level,” Givony said. “Any time you’re a guy that plays as hard as he does, that’s impressive.
“But I don’t know if he’s really shown what separates him at this stage. You’re watching the NBA playoffs and there really isn’t much of market these days for big guys who aren’t really good passers or outside shooters. You have to have something that really separates you in today’s NBA and I’m not really sure he’s shown what it is yet, besides his just his sheer energy and toughness and intensity.”
Bowen and Silva are two of 236 early entry candidates – 181 players from colleges and post-graduate institutions and 55 international players – for the draft. The two-round event will be held June 21 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
USC’s Sindarius Thornwell and P.J. Dozier participated in the 2017 combine. Thornwell became a second round of the selection of the Milwaukee Bucks and was later traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Dozier went undrafted and spent this past season on a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He appeared in two NBA games.
This story was originally published April 27, 2018 10:13 PM.