Deacons’ guard will be back for his senior season after going through NBA draft process
The wait until deadline day was worth it for Wake Forest.
Hunter Sallis announced Wednesday night that he’s returning to Wake Forest for his senior season and withdrawing from the NBA draft.
The deadline to withdraw from the draft is midnight Wednesday; Sallis' announcement came with a couple of hours to spare.
Sallis entered the draft process in mid-April, about a month after the Deacons’ season ended in the NIT. He participated in the NBA Combine earlier this month, though he opted out of the 5-on-5 scrimmage portion of the event.
With Sallis’ return, the Deacons get back their leading scorer and most explosive player from last year’s team that went 21-14 and went to the NIT.
The 6-5, 185-pounder was Wake’s leading scorer this past season (18.0 ppg). He also led the Deacons in 3-pointers (75) and attempts (185, 40.5%), and was the only player on the team to take at least 10 3s and shoot over 40% (eight players, including him, took at least 10).
Sallis started every game until he didn’t play in the Deacons’ second-round loss in the NIT. After the first-round win over Appalachian State, Sallis suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of the loss to Georgia.
Sallis’ explosion at Wake Forest came after two non-descript seasons with Gonzaga. He played in 68 games for the Bulldogs across two seasons, never starting and scoring in double figures six times.
The Omaha, Neb., native scored in double figures in 33 of the 34 games he played in for Wake Forest.
Wake Forest now has two scholarships available. Along with Sallis, Cameron Hildreth, Efton Reid III, Parker Friedrichsen and Marqus Marion are returning; Juke Harris is the only incoming freshman; and the transfer class is Ty-Laur Johnson (Louisville), David Cosby Jr. (Alabama), Omaha Biliew (Iowa State), Tre’Von Spillers (Appalachian State) and Churchill Abass (DePaul).
Only three players from the three All-ACC teams (five players on each team) are returning to the ACC next season: Sallis, UNC’s RJ Davis (first-team) and Notre Dame’s Markus Burton (third-team).
