Men’s Basketball: Former Panther Khem Birch declares for NBA Draft

By Ryan Bertonaschi / Senior Staff Writer
April 24, 2014

Former Pitt men’s basketball player Khem Birch announced Thursday on Twitter that he will forego his senior season at University of Nevada-Las Vegas to enter the NBA Draft.

Birch, a McDonald’s All-American and a five-star recruit in the 2011 Rivals.com high school class, transferred with abruptness from Pitt to UNLV after one semester. Birch suited up for 10 games — starting six — as a Panther, and averaged 4.4 points and five rebounds per contest. After his departure, he drew the ire of Pitt fans by bashing the team in a radio interview.  

At his new school, Birch became the player Pitt fans had anticipated when he arrived in Oakland in fall 2011.

Birch was named Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year last month for the second consecutive season. He also earned Second-Team All-Mountain West honors, averaging a doble-double in points (11.5) and rebounds (10.2) per game, while finishing this past season second in the country in blocked shots per game (3.76).

“I loved playing here at UNLV for Coach Rice and with my teammates,” Birch said in a statement on the school’s website.

The decision to go pro came as a shock to many. The Pitt News reported in March that Birch would likely return for his fourth and final season of college basketball, citing Danny Webster, sports editor at the school’s student newspaper, The Rebel Yell.

Birch told reporters around the same time that he was “leaning toward coming back,” according to runrebs.com, a UNLV fan site.  On Monday, RunRebs.com reported that Birch’s decision had become “a coin flip.”  

Where the Canadian will go in the draft is not up for debate. The question is if a team will even pick him. According to zagsblog.com, an NBA scout labeled the center as “a second-round possibility at best,” who “needs D-League experience,” so it is highly unlikely that he will match what Anthony Bennett, his countryman and former teammate at UNLV and in AAU basketball, did in the 2013 NBA Draft by getting selected no. 1 overall.

“It was a tough decision, one that I thought about for a very long time,” Birch said of turning pro.  “I will finish my classes this semester and I will be a Runnin’ Rebel for life.”