Miami point guard Acaden Lewis withdraws from 2026 NBA Draft, to play for Hurricanes

According to Jon Rothstein, Miami point guard Acaden Lewis will withdraw his name from the 2026 NBA Draft. Lewis intends to spend the 2026-2027 season in college basketball with the Hurricanes. This comes after he entered the NCAA transfer portal and previously played at Villanova. Big news for head coach Jai Lucas.

“Miami’s Acaden Lewis has withdrawn from the 2026 NBA Draft and will return to school next season, per his agent Joey Pennavaria,” Rothstein said via X. “Transfer from Villanova.”

Lewis spent just one season at Villanova after being a four-star recruit coming out of Sidwell Friends (Washington, D.C.). His rating out of high school and this past portal cycle were the same, being the No. 35 and No. 33 overall, respectively.

On the court, Lewis played in 33 games for Villanova and started them all. He averaged 12.2 points while shooting 45.6% from the field. Miami might look to improve his three-point shot, making just 27% of attempts from deep. Elsewhere on the stat sheet, 3.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game pop up for Lewis.

This time next year might be different for Lewis when it comes to the NBA. But at least one more year in college basketball will be required before moving up to the next level.

Miami looking to build off success in first year of Jai Lucas

Year 1 of the Jai Lucas era at Miami marked a return to national relevance for the Hurricanes. Coming off a disastrous 7-24 campaign in 2024-25 under interim head coach Bill Courtney, Lucas completely flipped the Hurricanes’ fortune in hardcourt with a 26-9 record that included a run to the second round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

“For me, I felt like this could be a special place. And that’s why, when the job opened, I kind of did everything I could to get involved. I’ll say it that way,” Lucas said following Miami‘s Round of 32 loss to Purdue. “And then once I got to meet the people, once I got to meet (Athletic Director) Dan (Radakovich) and (Senior Deputy Director of Athletics) Brian (Baptiste) and Joe (Zagacki) and the administration and the support system that we have at Miami, it was a no-brainer.

“And it’s the people that make places. We have good people at the university, and then we had great people in the building this year, with the players in the locker room and these three to the right of me. That made my job easy.”

On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this report