Top NBA Draft prospect Dante Exum will visit 5 colleges on recruiting visits

Jun 27, 2013; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner David Stern (right) shakes hands with deputy commissioner Adam Silver after the first round of the 2013 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /

The 2014 NBA Draft is loaded beyond measure, and while the entire college basketball viewing public is glued to Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle, and Marcus Smart every night, the other consensus top-5 prospect is playing in Australia. 6-foot-6 guard Dante Exum has long been considered likely to skip college entirely, especially given his status as a foreign-born player, but that reportedly won’t stop him from visiting some big-time programs.

Dante Exum (@daanteee) told ESPN that he still intends to set up college visits to 5 finalists soon -- Indiana, UNC, UK, Michigan, Oregon.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) December 19, 2013

Jeff Goodman of ESPN is reporting that Exum will visit 5 of the top schools in the country, indicating that he may be at least considering attending school in the U.S. rather than declaring for the draft. This would be huge news for whatever program he picked (obviously), but also a big hit to the upcoming draft class.

Exum is currently the 5th-rated prospect in the draft by ESPN’s Chad Ford, and he is also listed in the top-6 in both the NBADraft.net mock draft (5th) and DraftExpress mock draft (6th). He is considered to be a top-end athlete with great size and ball-handling skills, and he has drawn rave reviews, including comparisons to guys like Penny Hardaway.

It’s too early for fans of the 5 college teams to get excited, but at least for now, they can dream of Exum walking on to their campus in the fall of 2014.