2014-03-08 08:00:00
Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Florida… As March Madness looms on the horizon, which universities are most represented in the NBA? Basket USA studied the rosters of the 30 NBA franchises to establish this ranking. Not surprisingly, the most successful universities continue to attract and train the best players.
This season, no fewer than 113 universities (out of 351) in the NCAA are represented by at least one player in the NBA championship. Unsurprisingly, the quartet made up of Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas dominates the list like last year. Coached by John Calipari, the Wildcats occupy the first step of the podium with 21 players including John Wall, Rajon Rondo, Anthony Davis… and Nazr Mohammed, NCAA champion in 1998 and 1998.
Inseparable, Duke and North Carolina are tied for second with 15 players each. We can cite Elton Brand, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer or Kyrie Irving for the Blue Devils and Vince Carter, Kendall Marshall or Harrison Barnes for the Tar Heels. Kansas follows at a length with 14 players and players ranging from Paul Pierce to Ben McLemore to Kirk Hinrich. UConn, Florida and UCLA are the three other institutions also having more than ten players in the NBA (12 each).
67 players leave the ACC
If we look at the conferences, the ACC is still well ahead with 67 players. Strengthened by the arrivals of Syracuse (Carmelo Anthony, Michael Carter-Williams), Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, the conference historically dominated by Duke and N
orth Carolina shouldn’t be dethroned for a while longer. The SEC, led by Kentucky and Florida (Joakim Noah, Chandler Parsons, Al Horford, etc.), is second with 57 players, and the Pac-12 completes the podium with 51 players. The best conference in the NCAA for several seasons, the Big Ten only has 27 players in the NBA. This is probably due to the fact that universities like Wisconsin, Purdue or Iowa train players for four years and are not interested in Kentucky-style one-and-dones.
Note that 9 of the 10 members of the Big East are represented in the NBA, ahead of the ACC with 13 out of 15 and the SEC with 11 out of 14. Of the thirty-two conferences in the NCAA, only six have no players within the North American professional league.
Finally, there are still 26 players present in the NBA without having gone through the NCAA box, and we obviously find LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and even Dwight Howard in the lot.
Université
Players
1.
Kentucky
21
2.
Duke
15
North Carolina
15
4.
Kansas
14
5.
Connecticut
12
Florida
12
UCLA
12
8.
Arizona
9
9.
Georgia Tech
8
Texas
8
11.
Georgetown
6
Ohio St.
6
Syracuse
6
Washington
6
15.
Gonzaga
5
Louisville
5
LSU
5
Marquette
5
Southern Cal
5
Wake Forest
5
21.
Arkansas
4
Baylor
4
Colorado
4
Memphis
4
Michigan
4
Michigan St.
4
UNLV
4
Villanova
4
29.
Alabama
3
Arizona St.
3
Cincinnati
3
Florida St.
3
Indiana
3
Maryland
3
Miami-FL
3
Oklahoma St.
3
Pittsburgh
3
Providence
3
Purdue
3
Stanford
3
Texas A&M
3
Vanderbilt
3
Wisconsin
3
44.
Boston College
2
Butler
2
BYU
2
California
2
Creighton
2
Detroit
2
Fresno St.
2
Illinois
2
Kansas St.
2
Missouri
2
Nevada
2
New Mexico
2
Oregon
2
San Diego St.
2
St. John’s
2
St. Mary’s
2
Temple
2
Tennessee
2
Utah
2
Va. Commonwealth
2
Virginia
2
Washington St.
2
Western Kentucky
2
Wichita St.
2
Xavier
2
Belmont
1
70
Central Michigan
1
Clemson
1
Cleveland St.
1
Colorado St.
1
Davidson
1
Dayton
1
DePaul
1
Duquesne
1
Eastern Wash.
1
Georgia
1
Harvard
1
Iowa
1
Iowa St.
1
IUPUI
1
La Salle
1
Lehigh
1
Louisiana Tech
1
Minnesota
1
Mississippi St.
1
Morehead St.
1
Murray St.
1
Norfolk St.
1
North Texas
1
Northeastern
1
N.C. St.
1
Oklahoma
1
Old Dominion
1
Oregon St.
1
Rice
1
Rider
1
Rutgers
1
Saint Joseph’s
1
Santa Clara
1
South Dakota St.
1
South Florida
1
St. Bonaventure
1
Tennessee St.
1
Towson
1
UALR
1
UC Santa Barbara
1
Utah Valley
1
UTEP
1
Weber St.
1
Western Carolina
1
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