Which NCAA Champion Had The Most NBA Talent? Star-Studded UNC Teams Among Top Options
By David Glenn
(Part Three of a Six-Part NCAA/NBA Draft Series leading up to the June 23 NBA Draft, following Part One and Part Two)
When one or two Kansas players (senior guard Ochai Agbaji is a lock, and junior guard Christian Braun has a chance) are selected in the first round of the NBA draft later this month, a fascinating streak will continue.
Since the creation of a professional basketball draft in the United States, every single NCAA champion — 75 in a row! (1947-2022, with no champion crowned in the 2020 COVID campaign) — has had at least one future top-30 NBA draft pick (the equivalent of a modern first-round selection) in its playing rotation at the time it captured the title, and most had several.
The fun facts don’t end there, though.
Research going all the way back to 1947 shows that NCAA men’s basketball champions have benefited from, in terms of a rough average per team over 75 seasons, about three future top-30 NBA picks and five future NBA players, higher numbers than most fans guess or predict.
Whether this intriguing NCAA-NBA connection is viewed from the NBA’s “front end” (number of high NBA draft picks from each NCAA champion) or the NBA’s “back end” (total number of NBA games ultimately played by members of those national championship squads), two of North Carolina’s six NCAA title teams stand out from the crowd for their NBA-rich rosters.
When legendary UNC coach Dean Smith won the first of his two national championships, in 1982, his starting lineup included three players who went on to become top-four picks in the NBA draft: junior forward James Worthy (#1 overall in 1982), freshman guard Michael Jordan (#3 after his junior season in 1984) and sophomore center Sam Perkins (#4 after his senior season in 1984).
Only one other NCAA champion, dating all the way back to the first NCAA Tournament in 1939, has produced a trio of players who went on to that sort of NBA draft pedigree.
In 1975, as legendary coach John Wooden was capturing the last of his 10 national championships during his final season at UCLA, the Bruins’ starting lineup included senior forward Dave Meyers (#2 in 1975), sophomore forward Marques Johnson (#3 in 1977) and junior center Richard Washington (#3 in 1976). Among those three players, only Johnson (a five-time NBA all-star) had a standout professional career.
Those top-four draft picks from the 1982 Tar Heels, of course, all became uber-successful pros after their brilliant college careers. Jordan (the GOAT) and Worthy (like Jordan, voted to the NBA’s 50 and 75 all-time greatest players lists in 1996 and 2021, respectively) are members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Perkins, a member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame, played a whopping 17 seasons in The League after his time in Chapel Hill.
Amazingly, even though no other player from Carolina’s 1982 title team played in the NBA, the Jordan-Worthy-Perkins trio by itself also puts those Tar Heels on the short list of NCAA champions whose players had the largest/longest impacts in the world’s best pro league.
Here’s the math: Perkins (1,453 NBA games) + Jordan (1,251) + Worthy (1,069) = 3,773. No other NCAA championship team has ever produced three players who surpassed the 1,000-game threshold (including postseason games) in the NBA.
Only two NCAA champions, 1996 Kentucky (4,560) and 2009 UNC (4,040 and counting), have produced players who collectively went on to participate in more NBA games than the 1982 Tar Heels. Unlike the 1996 Wildcats, the 2009 Tar Heels still had several active NBA players (Ed Davis, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green) during the 2021-22 season, so it’s still possible that those Heels will end up atop this particular list of NCAA champions’ NBA-style superlatives.
Meanwhile, the 1980s also underlined the prolific connection between NCAA champions and the NBA (including its player draft) in a different way.
In theory, if there was ever going to be an NCAA champion with little or no NBA-caliber firepower, it probably would be one with a Cinderella story. Indeed, the 1980s produced three of the four lowest-seeded national champions in history: 1985 Villanova (a #8 seed), 1983 NC State (a #6 seed) and 1988 Kansas (a #6 seed).
Continuing an eight-decades-long theme, though, even those Cinderella stories had a high future NBA draft pick in a starring role: senior forward Danny Manning (#1 overall in 1988) from the 1988 Jayhawks, senior forward Thurl Bailey (#7 in 1983) from the 1983 Wolfpack, and senior center Ed Pinckney (#10 in 1985) from the 1985 Wildcats. Each of those NCAA champions had at least one additional future NBA player, too.
TOP-30 NBA PICKS ON NCAA CHAMPIONS (1980-89)
(For detailed information on the NCAA champions from 1970-79, please click here)
(For detailed information on the NCAA champions from 1955-69, please click here)
1989 Michigan
Head Coach: Steve Fisher
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (4): senior F Glen Rice (#4), junior PG Rumeal Robinson (#10), junior F Loy Vaught (#13), junior C Terry Mills (#16)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (6/3,036): Rice (1,055), Vaught (704), Mills (695), Robinson (352), sophomore F Sean Higgins (223), sophomore PG Demetrius Calip (7)
1988 Kansas
Head Coach: Larry Brown
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (1): senior F Danny Manning (#1)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (2/1,020): Manning (926), sophomore PG Kevin Pritchard (94)
1987 Indiana
Head Coach: Bob Knight
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (1): senior PG Steve Alford* (#26)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (4/620): junior C Dean Garrett (372), Alford (182), sophomore F Ricky Calloway (64), junior G Keith Smart (2)
1986 Louisville
Head Coach: Denny Crum
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (2): freshman C Pervis Ellison (#1), senior F Billy Thompson (#19)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (1): freshman F Kenny Payne (#19)
NBA Players/Games (4/986): Ellison (478), Thompson (303), Payne (147), senior G Milt Wagner (58)
1985 Villanova
Head Coach: Rollie Massimino
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (3): senior C Ed Pinckney (#10), junior F Harold Pressley (#17), senior F Dwayne McClain* (#27)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (3/1,167): Pinckney (823), Pressley (299), McClain (45)
1984 Georgetown
Head Coach: John Thompson
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (3): junior C Patrick Ewing (#1), freshman G Reggie Williams (#4), junior F Bill Martin* (#26)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks: none
NBA Players/Games (5/2,917): Ewing (1,322), sophomore F David Wingate (799), Williams (623), sophomore PG Michael Jackson (89), Martin (84)
1983 NC State
Head Coach: Jim Valvano
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (2): senior F Thurl Bailey (#7), senior PG Sidney Lowe* (#25)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (4/1,233): Bailey (997), Lowe (193), sophomore F Lorenzo Charles (40), sophomore C Cozell McQueen (3)
1982 UNC
Head Coach: Dean Smith
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (3): junior F James Worthy (#1), freshman G Michael Jordan (#3), sophomore C Sam Perkins (#4)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (3/3,773): Perkins (1,453), Jordan (1,251), Worthy (1,069)
1981 Indiana
Head Coach: Bob Knight
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (3): sophomore PG Isiah Thomas (#2), senior C Ray Tolbert (#18), sophomore F Randy Wittman (#22)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (4/2,098): Thomas (1,090), Wittman (581), Tolbert (266), sophomore G Jim Thomas (161)
1980 Louisville
Head Coach: Denny Crum
Starters Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (2): senior G Darrell Griffith (#2), freshman F Rodney McCray (#3)
Backups Who Became Top-30 NBA Picks (0): none
NBA Players/Games (6/2,304): McCray (814), Griffith (802), sophomore F Derek Smith (422), sophomore PG Jerry Eaves (179), sophomore F Scooter McCray (81), junior G Roger Burkman (6)
*-not a “first-round” pick (NBA draft didn’t have 30 picks/round until 2004)
Next Time: Much more on this NCAA champion/NBA draft connection. Thanks for reading.
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
The founding editor and long-time owner of the ACC Sports Journal and ACCSports.com, he also has contributed to the Durham Herald-Sun, ESPN Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Raycom Sports, SiriusXM and most recently The Athletic. From 1999-2020, he also hosted the David Glenn Show, which became the largest sports radio program in the history of the Carolinas, syndicated in more than 300 North Carolina cities and towns, plus parts of South Carolina and Virginia.
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