Georgia Tech's Baye Ndongo Ranked 53rd On ESPN's Way-Too-Early Big Board For the 2025 NBA Draft

Could Baye Ndongo be selected in the 2025 NBA Draft?

Feb 24, 2024; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets forward Baye Ndongo (11) shoots the basketball over Miami Hurricanes guard Wooga Poplar (5) during the first half at Watsco Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports / Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 NBA Draft concluded yesterday and while Georgia Tech did not have anyone drafted, they have a shot too next year.

After flirting with going into the NBA Draft this year, Yellow Jackets forward Baye Ndongo opted to come back to play for Damon Stoudamire for another season. If Ndongo can improve on parts of his game and help Georgia Tech improve in the win-loss column, I think he has a chance to get drafted next June.

It is probably way too early to be seriously considering a lot of this stuff, but ESPN released their way-too-early big board for the 2025 NBA Draft and Ndongo was rated as the No. 53 prospect in next year's draft.

Ndongo was arguably the best player on Georgia Tech's team last season.

The 6-9 freshman missed Tech’s first three games with a hand injury but started every game thereafter either in the post or at the power forward spot, and earned a spot on the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Rookie team. The Mboro, Senegal native, who prepped at Putnam (Conn.) Science Academy, was one of only two freshmen in Division I to average 12.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game while hitting at least 55 percent of his shots from the floor. Only Chris Bosh (2003) and Derrick Favors (2010) achieved all those numbers as freshmen.

Against ACC competition, Ndongo averaged 12.6 points and 7.7 rebounds while hitting 55.4 percent of his shots from the floor and leading the team in blocked shots with 20.

Ndongo led the Jackets in scoring 10 times and in rebounding 18 times, while posting six double-doubles. He was named the ACC’s Rookie of the Week three times early in the season, once after scoring 21 points to lead Tech past No. 7 Duke in December, and again after scoring 12 points with 19 rebounds in a Dec. 16 win over Penn State at Madison Square Garden, and the third time after making the all-tournament team at the Diamond Head Classic.

Ndongo was the first Tech freshman since Josh Okogie to be voted to the All-Rookie team.

Stoudamire getting Ndongo back was perhaps the best part of what was a good offseason of talent acquisition for the program.

Stoudamire has proven to be a very effective recruiter during his time at Georgia Tech so far. He put together a recruiting class that has been rated the 14th-best in the nation with high school prospects Cole Kirouac, a 6-11 center from Cumming, Ga., who attended Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., his senior year, Jaeden Mustaf of Bowie, Md., a 6-4 guard who also attended Overtime Elite, Doryan Onwuchekwa, a 6-11 center from DeSoto, Texas who attended Faith Family Academy of Oak Cliff, and Darrion Sutton, a 6-8 forward from St. Louis, Mo., who attends Overtime Elite in Atlanta. He also brought in three high-impact transfers for 2024-2025 as well with Oklahoma guardJavian McCollum, Sacramento State transfer Duncan Powell, Colorado forward Luke O'Brien, and Georgetown center transfer Ryan Mutombo in to help elevate the team this upcoming season.