After briefly tumbling out of the lottery, Kentucky freshman big man Skal Labissiere is now back up to No. 10 on the latest Draft Express Mock Draft for 2016 released Saturday.
The Haitian Sensation is averaging 6.8 points and 3.2 rebounds but is coming off back-to-back solid performances, including an 18-point, 9-rebound, 6-block outing in Saturday’s win over projected No. 1 pick Ben Simmons and LSU and an 11-point, 8-rebound outing on Tuesday against Florida.
“Labissiere did a great job protecting rim, knocking down jumpers and playing with better toughness and confidence than we’ve seen all season,” Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com Tweeted.
“He’s just making shots and playing with confidence now,” Kentucky point guard Tyler Ulis told reporters. “He’s going to be the Skal that I knew he was and that everybody knew he was.”
Labissiere, who was once ranked at No. 1 ahead of Simmons by DraftExpress.com, even impressed the Australian with his play on Saturday.
“He looked a lot better today,” Simmons said. “He looked like he wasn’t worrying about anything.”
One NBA executive said NBA personnel will be scouting Labissiere to see if he can keep it up in the postseason.
“The SEC tournament will be another big step for him,” the exec said. “Can he consistently do what he did against LSU in Nashville all next week?”
The rest of the Top 10 looks like this: No. 1 Simmons, No. 2 Brandon Ingram of Duke, No. 3 Jaylen Brown of Cal, No. 4 Dragan Bender of Maccabi Tel Aviv, No. 5 Kris Dunn of Providence, No. 6 Jakob Poeltl of Utah, No. 7 Jamal Murray of Kentucky, No. 8 Henry Ellenson of Marquette and No. 9 Buddy Hield of Oklahoma.
Maryland freshman big man Diamond Stone fell to No. 16 from 9.
Six of the Top 10 projected picks are college freshmen, including two from Kentucky in Murray and Labissiere.
Among Kentucky players, Ulis remains at 47 and freshman Isaiah Briscoe remains at 48.
Kansas, the No. 1 team in the nation, doesn’t have a single projected first-round pick. Freshman Cheick Diallo is listed at No. 31.
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