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Caleb Swanigan declares for NBA Draft, but will not hire an agent

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Purdue star Caleb Swanigan has formally entered the NBA draft, for the second year in a row.

Swanigan announced that move Wednesday morning on "Popular Nobodies," a podcast that originates out of Fort Wayne.

He will not hire an agent, leaving the door open to return to Purdue should he so choose.

"I'm going to see how that goes," Swanigan said on the podcast, "but I will be entering my name in the draft."

Though he will maintain his right to withdraw and return to Purdue as long as he doesn't sign with an agent prior to the May 24 deadline, it is considered most likely that Swanigan will remain in the draft, which will be held June 22.

Last year, Swanigan submitted his name for the draft, then withdrew just before the deadline to do so and returned to Purdue for a sophomore season that resulted in him contending for National Player-of-the-Year honors.

The 6-foot-9, 250-pound big man has never hid his ambitions to reach the highest level of his sport as soon as possible.

"That’s how anyone should look at it at this level," Swanigan said prior to the season. "If the stars line up, then there's no reason to not go."

And he has put himself in a far better position to do so than a year ago. As a sophomore at Purdue, he improved every area of his game considerably, led Purdue to a Big Ten championship, played well during the Boilermakers' NCAA Tournament run and has begun to generate first-round assessments, whereas last year many projections had him going undrafted altogether had he left Purdue.

DraftExpress.com currently pegs Swanigan as the No. 28 pick of the Los Angeles Lakers, though the full draft field is yet to be known fully. ESPN.com's Chad Ford put Swanigan 24th on a recent ranking of his top 30 draft-bound prospects.

Swanigan averaged 18.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists for Purdue this season. He shot 53 percent from the floor and just under 45 percent from three-point range, up from 29 percent as a freshman.

The Big Ten Player-of-the-Year led the conference in both scoring and rebounding in conference games.

Swanigan was named a finalist for the Naismith Trophy and Wooden Award and has already been named Player-of-the-Year by the Basketball Times. He has been named to first-team All-America teams by USA Today, Sporting News, AP, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and NBC Sports. He's also a second-team Academic All-American.

Purdue has spent the past year in recruiting looking to make accommodations for Swanigan's anticipated departure. It's been recruiting Class of 2017 big men at a priority level since the day Swanigan announced he'd return for this season and has indicated to them that it anticipates a vacancy.

One of Purdue's spring targets, Malik Ondigo, will visit Purdue this weekend.

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