Syracuse, New York – Outstanding goalkeeper Jordan Burns who led Colgate basketball to the 2019 NCAA tournament, has declared himself in the NBA draft, he announced Friday.
Burns hinted that he had not signed with an agent, allowing him to participate in pre-draft workouts with the option of returning to Hamilton, N.Y., for his final year.
The 6-foot, 175-pound native of San Antonio has been one of the driving forces behind Colgate’s rise to the ranks of E-major in recent years. After starting 19 games as a freshman in the 2017-18 season, Burns made his second year debut, winning the Patriots’ Second Team honors despite most of his ankle injury of the year. He had 16.3 points and a program record of 5.7 assists per game, playing his best basketball in the final stretch.
After recording a Patriot League tournament record of 35 points in the league game against Bucknell, Burns helped Colgate push Tennessee’s number 2 seed to the edge in the first round of Big Dance. He had 32 points on 8 shots on 13 from a range of 3 points.
“We wanted to get into this tight game,” said Burns after the contest, “even though most of the locals didn’t do it.”
Burns’ confidence comes from his time playing at John Marshall High School, where he was captain for four years. The school’s football coach told Burns that he would never play Division I basketball at his size in order to recruit him to the field.
This led Burns to work towards an academic opportunity, which was eventually granted to him by Raiders head coach Matt Langel. Now Burns, after averaging 15.8 points as a junior, is betting once more as he explores his NBA opportunities.
The NBA Draft Combine is currently scheduled for May 21-24, although the coronavirus pandemic may well change that.
Stephen Bailey covers Syracuse football for The Post-Standard / Syracuse.com. You can follow him on Twitter @ Stephen_Bailey1 and on Facebook. He can also be reached at any time by email.