MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University guard Javon Small was taken in the second round of this year’s NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies.

He was the 48th overall choice.

Small enjoyed a breakout season at West Virginia in 2025 that saw him average 18.6 points, 5.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals during his lone year with the Mountaineers.

His season-high 31 points were crucial in WVU’s overtime victory over Gonzaga in the Bahamas. He also scored West Virginia’s final seven points in a 62-61 upset victory at Kansas – the Mountaineers’ first-ever win in Allen Fieldhouse – and he was dominant in a 64-57 victory over second-ranked Iowa State by scoring a game-high 27 points.

“One of the most athletic guards in this entire draft,” ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said. “He’s a primary ballhandler who can create. He’s quick. He’s crafty and then defensively, he’s really good at the point of attack.

“He had 68 points in clutch time so he’s really good and when the lights are on, he shows up,” Bilas added.

Small, listed at 6-foot-3 but measuring 6-feet-1 barefoot at this year’s NBA Draft Combine, played two years at East Carolina and one at Oklahoma State, where he averaged 15.1 points per game for the Cowboys in 2024.

 

In 97 career college games, the South Bend, Indiana, resident scored 1,380 points, handed out 424 assists and grabbed 374 rebounds.

“(The Grizzlies) are getting a competitor, a hard worker and somebody who is going to bring positive energy every single day. They are just going to get a dog,” Small said. 

Draft experts noted his strong performance in agility and shooting drills at this year’s NBA Draft Combine held this spring in Chicago, which likely offset some concerns about his lack of height and long-range shooting consistency.

On3’s James Fletcher had Small ranked No. 47 overall on his final draft board; ESPN.com NBA draft analyst Jonathan Givony had Small pegged at No. 48, while Draft Digest had him rated 50^th.

Yahoo! Sports draft analyst Kevin O’Connor compared Small to Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, writing: “Small is an undersized guard who plays bigger than his body thanks to his excellent athleticism and gritty nature. He’s a knockdown shooter off the catch and a solid lead guard, though his lack of size puts a natural cap on his upside.”

There were 59 total selections in this year’s draft.

The last West Virginia University player picked by an NBA team was guard Deuce McBride, who went 36^th overall in the second round to the New York Knicks in 2021.

Including Small this year, six Mountaineer players have been taken in the draft since 2008 when forward Joe Alexander went No. 8 overall to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Forwards Da’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks were taken consecutively at No. 42 by the Miami Heat and No. 43 by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round in 2010, and guard Jevon Carter was the 32^nd overall choice by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2018 draft.

 

Remy Cofield was officially hired as Arkansas general manager back on March 24 and has since been working quietly behind the scenes to get acclimated to the new gig. On Thursday, he made his first public comments since being hired on and offered insight into his role and how the athletic department plans to navigate this new college landscape. 

Cofield, a former Director of Scouting for the Boston Celtics and GM of their G-League affiliate Maine Celtics, was hired to “oversee the strategic allocation of department and affiliate resources to support Razorback head coaches in the acquisition and retention of championship-caliber athletic talent,” according to the official release from the school at the time. 

The 12-year NBA executive officially offered a much simpler explanation of his day-to-day role as general manager when speaking for the first time on Thursday afternoon. 

“It’s just pick up the pieces where things need to be picked up,” Cofield said. “I said to Hunter when we initially got on with this and started working on things, I just want to help people out. Coaching staff needs something, need advice on a particular rule that we’re looking at, call us up, let’s figure it out. If you want to talk about roster, players, all that stuff.

“If you need connection to somebody that I may have, let’s figure it out. So I think in my role it’s just trying to be a connector in a lot of ways, making sure every staff has what they need from a (revenue) share standpoint. But also brought up to speed on the new rules that are coming through, that we’re all kind of learning right now and we don’t have a lot of answers to. But we’re trying to get ahead of it and be proactive in that space.”

One of the key reasons why the general manager role has taken off in college athletics is because coaches were being tasked with handling more and more off-field issues with NIL and transfer portal. On top of their day-to-day operations as coaches, they would also have to negotiate NIL agreements and deal with player representatives. Sam Pittman mentioned his hopes for Cofield taking some of those things off his plate back during spring drills.

“Since we’ve been here, I’ve kind of been the good guy and the bad guy,” Pittman said. “Good, if you come in and you want X amount of money and all that and we feel like that’s the worth. They’re gonna go to him, so I think that buffering system is going to help me tremendously. And it’s personal, you know. Guys are gonna leave, you understand why, but then it becomes personal. We need to take that part out of the game, to me.”

Now, as Cofield’s explained on Thursday, his role is to sort of be the “bad guy” and shield coaches from athletes who are unhappy with rev-share or NIL agreements. That allows the coaches to focus more on what they’ve been hired to do.

“I don’t mind having tough conversations, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, either,” Cofield explained. “I think when you want an answer to a question and it’s negative, that’s just what it is. I think when Sam has those conversations, we want to make sure Sam is a good guy coaching every single day, paying attention to his players’ needs from a football standpoint, and just keeping the money stuff out of it.

“I think that helps him, but again, that’s his situation. Every situation is different. I think for Sam, that helps him in a lot of ways, just to be able to connect with those guys on a personal level and be the person he is on a day-to-day basis. Allow me to be the one to have those tough conversations and say, ‘We can’t do this. We can’t do that’. Or sometimes, deliver some good news. ‘We can do this. We can do that’. I think it’s been positive for him and I hope it continues to be positive.”

On June 6, the House v. NCAA settlement was approved, the landmark decision now allows schools to pay players directly beginning on July 1. Cofield has only been at Arkansas since March and has been focused on getting acclimated to the new role while preparing for what’s to come after July 1, but he believes that the Razorbacks will be more competitive in this new landscape.

“I’m trying these last two months to just kind of get my feet wet,” Cofield said. “I was telling [Kyle Parkinson] this is the second time I’ve been down here you know, seeing the area and I didn’t really know where the media room was so, that’s the biggest thing for me. But coming down to Arkansas, it’s been fantastic ever since I stepped foot down here. People have been really, really nice.

“Our fanbase wants us to be extremely competitive. I’m extremely competitive, all of our coaches are extremely competitive. We’re going to get the right players for Arkansas, that’s the most important for us. We’ll compete with some of the money issues that are going to be out there. I think a lot of the cap stuff that we’re going to see going forward is going to level it out a little more so that we can compete from a money standpoint. But I think it starts with the players, we’ve got to get the right players for us.”

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NIL has affected everything in college sports since it began nearly four years ago in 2021. The pros have since felt those effects as well, specifically in their drafts, with how good some players have it in collegiate athletics now.

Jay Bilas explained the impact of name, image, and likeness on the NBA Draft going into tonight’s second round coverage while on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday. He felt it had steadily decreased the value that teams can find in the second round with prospects who have remaining eligibility that could be selected in those spots, deciding to withdraw their names and return to college rather than be picked in the association.

“One thing you’re seeing with NIL now? Players are not only going to college. They’re staying in college longer,” Bilas said. “The second round is probably not – I haven’t like, you know, done this with a microscope. But the second round this year is probably not as good as the second round, like, two or three years ago because a lot of second-round picks are guys that would’ve come out two or three years ago, are staying in school because they’re going to make way more money staying in school.”

“If they’re not going to be first-round picks, they’re staying in (college),” Bilas said.

As many as 106 players, whether from college or international, entered their names to be early-entry candidates as part of this draft. Then, by the withdrawal deadline for college players on May 28th, 50 pulled their names out of this class.

Among the most notable on that list were Houston’s Milos Uzan, Duke’s Isaiah Evans, Florida’s Alex Condon, Boogie Fland, and Reuben Chinyelu, Kentucky’s Otega Oweh and Jaland Lowe, Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford, Alabama’s Labaron Philon, Arkansas’ Karter Knox, and NC State’s Darrion Williams. Those are several players who will make the difference for potential national title contenders. The rest of the names still then include ones who will absolutely affect their respective programs as well in ’25-’26.

Several of those names could have been or would have been selected tonight in the second round, or maybe even last night in the first round for some. However, name, image, and likeness has made it a much different decision-making process considering what those players could make over a year back in college than their first as rookies in the NBA.

First round picks make several million dollars on guaranteed deals as rookies, but second-round picks aren’t on the same wage scale, meaning less guaranteed money for contracts closer to the minimum or ones for a two-way signing. That’s the same value or less than some of them would make back in college, based on the compensation at their respective programs.

There are still good players to be found by franchises in the second round, with that on display tonight as 29 more selections will be made. Still, as compared to previous drafts in years past, there may be less talent available this year and in ones moving forward, as a result of NIL.