Cedric Coward reveals he is 'leaning towards' staying in NBA Draft over playing at Duke

Duke fans were elated when Washington State transfer Cedric Coward committed to join the Blue Devils for the 2025-26 season. However, he kept his options open, going through the NBA Draft process, and it’s beginning to look like he may never suit up and play for Jon Scheyer.

Speaking with the media at the 2025 NBA Draft Combine, Coward revealed that he’s leaning towards entering the draft, instead of returning to the college game. He’s just looking to make the best decision possible for himself, but the information he’s gathering at the moment has him considering going pro.

“I’m 100% focusing on the draft. At the end of the day, the decision I make is going to be based on the information I get. Right now, the information is definitely leaning towards staying in the draft,” Coward told the media, via Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated. “At the end of the day, we gotta figure out the best decision to make for myself and my family as I go forward.”

All told, Coward wasn’t a name many expected to be a premier NBA Draft selection, but it might be trending that way. He’s had a meteoric rise over the past few months. The forward appeared in just six games last season before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, but he played extremely well in his limited action.

For example, Coward averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 55.7% from the field and 40.0% from beyond the arc. Before transferring to Washington State, Coward spent two seasons at Eastern Washington and one year at Willamette University, a Division III program.

In his junior season at Washington State, Coward was unanimously voted an All-Big Sky First-Team selection. Additionally, he was named to the NABC All-District First Team.

It’s easy to see why Duke fans were excited about his addition when he committed to the program on April 28. The Athletic draft expert Sam Vecenie tried to make sense of Coward’s NBA Draft dream, believing it’s more of a reality than previously thought.

“I think he’s awesome, just point blank,” Vecenie said about Coward. “I just don’t know that NBA teams are quite as high on him. I have Cedrick coward like at the edge of my lottery, personally… I saw him work out, and it’s one of those things where, you see a kid where all of the kinetic energy flows in the right way. Everything is smooth.

“Kids that are 6’6” with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, like Cedric Coward has, there’s supposed to be some awkwardness there, right? There’s supposed to be some kind of funkiness with how they move. And with him, there’s none of it. It’s all smooth.”

Time will tell what Cedric Coward decides, and whether or not he enters the 2025 NBA Draft. Duke isn’t a bad fallback option, though. This may be a situation where there isn’t any wrong answer, as long as you aren’t asking anyone in North Carolina.

— On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this article.