Report: Tobi Lawal withdrawing from NBA Draft process, returning to Virginia Tech

Tobi Lawal is withdrawing from the NBA Draft process and returning to Virginia Tech, according to Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68. It’s a boost to the Hokies in 2025-26.

Last season, Lawal put up 12.4 points per game, a career high, as well as seven rebounds per game, shot 55.9% from the floor and 37.1% from three-point range. He upped his production each year after his first two seasons at VCU.

As a member of the Class of 2022, Lawal was not ranked, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He played his high school basketball in London, England at Lee Academy.

Lawal had great growth in his three-point shot this past season, as Mike Young explained in January. That’ll certainly help this coming season as well.

“He’ll be fine,” Mike Young said. “I’ve got great confidence in him. Fellas, if you had told me back in September when we kicked it off that I’d be running a play for him to shoot the ball from three, I’d give you an example that involves some ugly words. I never thought I’d do that.”

Lawal came to Virginia Tech as a transfer from VCU where he spent the first two seasons of his college career. While there, he shot .429 percent from three-point range. That came, primarily, in a sixth-man role.

“And while I put something in that we’ve run for a long time, I haven’t run it since Keve [Aluma] was here. God, Aluma was… and Tobi has shot the ball very well. I think he’s shooting 45 percent from three in league play. Run special plays for special players. He’s better with his feet in the ground. He’s coming out of an action to get to that. We ran it twice. He was — I may have run it three times. Two for him and he drove the second one and got all the way to the rim,” Young said.

“But that’s just the confidence I have in that kid. You’re not doing that if he’s a 16 percent three-point shooter, but you prove that you can step back there and make it, we’ll dial a couple of things up for you. He missed it today. We’re going to continue to go to it. He’s proven to us that he can make that shot.”