Nate Ament stayed put as the No. 7 overall player in ESPN’s ranking of the top 100 NBA Draft prospects when Jeremy Woo updated his big board on Thursday. 

Ament, who was ranked No. 7 in the previous update, remains behind No. 1 Darryn Peterson (Kansas), No. 2 AJ Dybantsa (BYU), No. 3 Cameron Boozer (Duke), No. 4 Caleb Wilson (North Carolina), No. 5 Kingston Flemings (Houston) and No. 6 Keaton Wagler (Illinois). 

The top four remained unchanged while Flemings moved up one place and Wagler jumped up 19 spots. Ament was ranked just ahead of Arkansas freshman point guard Darius Acuff Jr., who moved up from No. 15 to No. 8.

Nate Ament is averaging 22.2 points over last night games

Ament is up to 17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game over the first 24 games of his college career. He’s shooting 42.8% from the field and 32.7% from the 3-point line in 30.0 minutes per game. 

He’s averaging 22.2 points per game over his last nine games, after he scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half Wednesday to help Tennessee close a 73-64 road win at Mississippi State. 

“It shouldn’t be surprising that Ament has figured things out at Tennessee after an early adjustment period,” Woo wrote, “averaging 20.1 points on 46% shooting in SEC play entering Wednesday.” 

Ament averaged 25.4 points per game over the previous five games before Mississippi State, shooting 50% from the 3-point line. 

ESPN’s latest NBA mock draft: Nate Ament to Charlotte Hornets

He matched a career high with 29 at Kentucky Saturday and had 26 of his 28 points in the second half last week against Ole Miss. He scored 23 in the double-overtime win against Texas A&M, 22 against Auburn, 19 Georgia and 17 against Kentucky at home and Florida on the road.

“He fits an archetype as a jumbo skill player who can handle and shoot from range that NBA teams are always willing to chase early in the draft,” Woo wrote. “Evaluators have generally been forgiving of the context, as Ament has been asked to facilitate and create a lot for a team that has little playmaking around him.”

Woo’s latest NBA mock draft, which was published on January 13, had Ament as the No. 7 overall pick to the Charlotte Hornets. At the time he was averaging 14.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists through 16 games.

“Ament sometimes struggles to get consistent separation from defenders,” Woo wrote this week, “but his ability to rise up over them at his size tends to be translatable to the NBA.

“While his top-five preseason projection has dimmed a touch while others have emerged, Ament remains a strong lottery bet with appealing positional size, versatility and upside.”