Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Tuesday Trivia

Last week's question:

 Who was the last player taken first overall in the NBA draft who won an NCAA Basketball Championship?

Answer:
Photo Credit: thestartingfive.net
None of the number one picks over the last twenty years won NCAA Championships. You have to go all the way back to Larry Johnson, the first overall pick in 1991, to find a winner. Johnson teamed up with Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony to help lead the UNLV Runnin' Rebels to the 1990 NCAA Championship and just missed back-to-back titles when they were beaten by Duke 79-77 in the 1991 Final Four.

Johnson is one of ten number one picks to have won an NCAA title. The others are Pervis Ellison (Louisville), Danny Manning (Kansas), Patrick Ewing (Georgetown), James Worthy (North Carolina), Magic Johnson (Michigan State), Kent Benson (Indiana), David Thompson (North Carolina State), Bill Walton (UCLA) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA). Walton and Kareem both won multiple titles at UCLA.

So what's gone on the last 20 years? Well, for starters, a lot of those guys either didn't play college ball or haven't been staying beyond their freshman or sophomore year so that really diminishes their chances. In fact, over the last 20 years exactly TWO of the number one picks played four years of college basketball. Let's take a look:


This week's question:
Photo Credit: concordmonitor.com
This past week we saw a pair of #15 seeds, Norfolk State and Lehigh, defeat #2 seeds Missouri and Duke in the first round of the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament. Only four other times in tournament history had a 15 seed advanced to the second round. The previous four 15 seed winners produced exactly one NBA first round draft pick. Who was it?

3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I just started running through the 15s, and I knew it wasn't Hampton State. Once I got to Santa Clara I figured it had to be Nash.

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