Canes Anxiously Awaiting NBA Draft
• NBA Draft Order
• Walker Draft Analysis
• Brown Draft Analysis
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Thursday night figures to mark a momentous occasion in the history of University of Miami men’s basketball. Two Hurricanes, Lonnie Walker IV and Bruce Brown, Jr., are expected to hear their names called during the 2018 NBA Draft, which will be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
ESPN will broadcast the draft beginning at 7 p.m.
Walker has been invited to attend the draft and will be in the green room, and the UM coaching staff will be on hand in the arena to witness the occasion.
If both Walker and Brown are selected in the draft Thursday, it would mark just the third time in program history that two Miami players were selected in the same NBA Draft, joining the 1968 and 1970 seasons, but it would be the first time in the current two-round format of the draft.
Miami has had 20 NBA Draft selections previously, most recently Davon Reed in the 2017 draft. Among Miami’s 20 previous NBA Draft selections are four first-round picks: Rick Barry (2nd overall, San Francisco Warriors, 1965), Tim James (25th, Miami Heat, 1999), John Salmons (26th, San Antonio Spurs, 2002) and Shane Larkin (18th, Atlanta Hawks, 2013).
After earning ACC All-Freshman Team honors and leading the Hurricanes in scoring at 11.5 points per game this season, Walker has a good chance to be the second-highest draft pick in program history and also could be the first lottery pick in UM history. The lottery era started in 1985. A 6-foot-5, 204-pound guard, Walker played in all 32 games during the 2017-18 campaign, including 19 starts.
The highest draft pick in program history is Barry, who played for the Hurricanes from 1962-65 and was the second overall pick in the 1965 NBA Draft by the San Francisco Warriors. UM’s all-time leading scorer with 2,298 career points, Barry was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after an illustrious professional career in which he was an eight-time NBA All-Star and four-time ABA All-Star and scored over 25,000 points.
A 6-foot-5, 202-pound guard, Brown averaged 11.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game during his sophomore season in 2016-17. He missed the last 13 games of the season with a foot injury and led the team in rebounds, assists and steals at the time of his injury.
Walker and Brown would be the third and fourth NBA Draft picks at Miami under Jim Larrañaga, joining Larkin and Reed. That would tie for the second-most draft picks of any UM men’s basketball coach.
The most total draft picks under any UM coach is five for coach Ron Godfrey from 1967-71, but the draft at that time consisted of many more rounds, including 21 rounds in 1968 and 19 rounds in 1970. Miami had two selections in each of those drafts.
This also would be the fifth time in program history that Miami players have been selected in back-to-back NBA Drafts (1967-68, 1970-71, 2002-03, 2009-10). Reed was picked 32nd overall last season by the Phoenix Suns with the second pick of the second round.
Three Miami basketball alumni saw time in the NBA this past season: Larkin (Boston Celtics), Trey McKinney Jones (Indiana Pacers) and Reed (Phoenix Suns).
Reed made his NBA debut with the Suns on Jan. 14 against the Indiana Pacers, while McKinney Jones earned his first NBA action on Feb. 23 against the Atlanta Hawks. All three played under Larrañaga at Miami.
