After one season with Pitt basketball, freshman guard Bub Carrington has declared for the 2024 NBA Draft.
Carrington called his career as a Panther closed at a press conference Wednesday inside of the Campus View Club at the Petersen Events Center, flanked to his right by coach Jeff Capel and with his family and teammates watching from across the room. Carrington made it clear that, despite the NBA Draft process allowing for prospects to withdraw their names from consideration before the draft begins, his days at Pitt are complete and he will be playing pro basketball in 2024.
"I'd like to announce my decision for next year. Next year I will be concluding my career here at Pitt and declaring for the 2024 NBA Draft," Carrington said to conclude his prepared statement Wednesday.
Carrington, a former four-star recruit, averaged 13.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.1 assists while starting in all 33 games for the Panthers this season. At 6-foot-5, the Baltimore native has impressed scouts with his scoring ability and his projectable traits at just 18 years old. Carrington made a splash with his first collegiate game with a triple-double of 18 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. It was the fifth triple-double performance in program history and the first since Ricardo Greer's triple-double against Villanova in 1998. Carrington's was done in his first collegiate game, which is something the four who preceded them didn't do.
Carrington began ACC play with scoring outings of 17, 20, 16, and 10 points while averaging just over 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game in that stretch. He struggled throughout the beginning and middle of January but rallied to post a then-career-best 24 points in Pitt's win over Wake Forest Jan. 31. He posted four straight single-digit scoring outputs in mid-to-late February but stepped up to score a career-high 27 points, followed by outings of 12 and 23 points in the Panthers' final three games of the season. Pitt won those games and then an ACC Tournament game over Wake Forest before succumbing to North Carolina. Carrington's final game as a Panther was a 24-point, five-rebound performance against the Tar Heels in Washington, D.C.
"I didn't think, I don't think he thought, I don't think his family thought this would just be a one-year thing with him playing for us," Capel said. "But, when he got here in the summer and he started working and we started doing stuff, I noticed that he was different. I knew that he was a really good player when we recruited him and I've never been one to pay attention to rankings, but when we started working I started to see that he was different.
"And one of the things that makes him really different -- I think that it's the best part of his game -- is his mind. I think he's really, really smart. The competitiveness and the work ethic, and obviously when we started the season after the first few games it was, 'OK, this could be quicker than any of us even thought,' and I remember after the fourth game sitting with his parents and talking to them about how we want to handle this because I knew from my past experiences everything was going to change and this thing would be pretty fast or have a chance to be pretty fast.
"Once the season was over with I spoke to his dad again and put together a plan and I started reaching out to NBA teams, general managers, scouts, director of personnels just to try to get them accurate information and feedback. The feedback that we got was very, very positive, and I thought that went into Bub and his family's decision to make this move. I think it's the right move."
A mock draft from Bleacher Report on March 22 has Carrington picked by the Clippers at 26th overall. Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman wrote this report of Carrington:
"One of the more interesting names teams will monitor during the predraft process, Carlton Carrington has divided scouts with his shotmaking, playmaking production and some athletic and statistical red flags. He finished the regular season averaging 1.9 threes, 5.2 boards and 4.2 assists, impressive production for a 6-foot-5, 18-year-old point guard in the ACC. But he also shot 47.7% on layups, made just 23 half-court field goals at the rim and recorded 17 steals in 31 games. Scouts are drawn to his positional size, pull-up game and live-dribble passing, but they’re torn by his lack of rim pressure, heavy reliance on jumpers and scary defensive playmaking rate."
The NBA Draft allows for prospects to keep their names within the process while maintaining college eligibility, provided they entered with eligibility remaining. Up until a certain date, players could withdraw their names from the draft process and return to school.
Carrington made it clear that he is going pro, however, and that will not be an option for him come the summer months.
"My intention is to be a pro basketball player in two, three months," Carrington said. "That's my plan and that's what I'm going to try to do."
The Ringer's big board ranks Carrington as the draft's 27th overall prospect with a comparison to former NBA guard Lou Williams.
"Scouts are liking my mind, my feel for the game, my ability to score in the mid-range and 3, and something they want me to work on is just getting to the basket and using my size, playing like I'm 6-5, basically," Carrington said.
