Before the two Colonials, the most recent college hoopsters from local schools to make the NBA were Steve Blake from Maryland and Mike Sweetney from Georgetown, who both came into the league in 2004. Blake has started for the Nuggets while Sweetney plays a little for the Bulls. And Roger Mason joined the Wiz this season, but he graduated in 2002.
Otherwise, it seems that the options for more recent stars are the D-League (the NBA’s minor league) or Germany. Georgetown’s Brandon Bowman and Maryland’s Chris McCray are in the D-League. Hoya Ashanti Cook and Terp Nik Caner-Medley are in Germany. Danilo Pinnock from GW tried a little of everything – he was drafted by the Mavs, traded to the Lakers, played in Germany and is now in the D-League. Both Mensah-Bonsu and Hall were in the D-League before getting called up. Mason’s grads went a little farther afield – Tony Skinn is in France, Lamar Butler is in the Czech Republic, and Jai Lewis tried out for the NFL then went to Israel. Phew.
However, it shouldn’t require an atlas to find local players after this year. Eight different players from area schools show up on various 2007 NBA mock draft boards, with Georgetown’s Julius Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green in most first rounds (though some don’t have Hibbert in either round). A few other locals crack various boards – Maryland’s D.J. Strawberry and Ekene Ibekwe, J.R. Reynolds and Sean Singletary from Virginia, Zabian Dowdell from Virginia Tech, and even Avis Wyatt from Virginia State. While we don’t know which of these cagers will make an NBA roster, the NCAA tourney may give some players more exposure (e.g. George Mason last year), and it’s safe to say that local college hoops fans won’t have to use the Google translator to find out how their alums are doing next year.
Hoop photo by Flickr user {ryan}
