Upcoming San Diego State Basketball junior forward Malik Pope will withdraw his name from the 2016 NBA Draft, the star announced via a tweet on Tuesday afternoon.
Pope, who averaged 7.3 points and 5 rebounds per game in his sophomore season, declared for the Draft on April 12, but did not sign an agent, which gave him the opportunity to return to SDSU if he saw fit.
In the 2015-16 season, Pope helped the Aztecs to a 28-10 record, 16-2 in Mountain West play, good enough to earn them the regular season Mountain West crown.
But Pope came alive in postseason play, scoring 12.3 points and grabbing 7.3 rebounds per game in the final nine games of the season, with seven of those games being the Mountain West Tournament and the National Invitational Tournament.
His biggest performance was in the MW Championship game loss to Fresno State University, in which Pope powered SDSU with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and one thunderous putback dunk.
Pope returns with fellow junior guard Trey Kell, redshirt-sophomore forward Zylan Cheatham and sophomore guard Jeremy Hemsley to earn the Steve Fisher coached Aztecs a third consecutive MW title and get them back to the NCAA Tournament.