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Who Was the Last College Player

Kawhi Leonard is the easy choice for me. The guy was a no star recruit who only had one offer to San Diego State. He's gotten better and better every year he's been in the pros.
 
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Kawhi Leonard is the easy choice for me. The guy was a no star recruit who only had one offer to San Diego State. He's gotten better and better every year he's been in the pros.

You don't actually know how many offers he had because of the fact that Twitter wasn't around.
Leonard was a pretty sought after player on the West Coast

 
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MAKE A FORECAST
10/22/2008 FOOTBALL
Leonard is off the board

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Justin Young
Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting Senior Writer
Kawhi Leonard, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound versatile wing from Riverside (Calif.) Martin Luther King, is off the board.
And according to his coach, Leonard may be the biggest sleeper on the West Coast and a potential star at the college level. Leonard, the No. 76 ranked player in the class of 2009, will fine tune his craft at San Diego State next season.
According to Martin Luther King head coach Tim Sweeney, Leonard gives the Aztecs a major player on the wing and a player with a bright, bright future.
"He might be the steal of the entire West Coast," Sweeney said. "This is a kid that was recruited heavily by the Pac-10 and then schools like Memphis and Marquette came by. The list goes on and on. He is a high, high-major player. I think everyone that has seen him play and continues to watch him play this high school year, I believe, will show he's one of the top players in the nation. San Diego State is getting a great one here. This is a kid that is a NBA player one year."

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/leonard-is-off-the-board
 
Steph Curry. Only D-1 offer was from Davidson and look at him now.

Not quite. He was certainly overlooked, but he was still a top 300 recruit... and he pulled in an offer from VT, albeit very late in the process.

stephcurry.jpg
 
Mid-Majors:
Steph Curry, Davidson
Damian Lillard, Weber State
CJ McCollum, Lehigh
Paul George, Fresno State
Pascal Siakam, New Mexico State

P6 Schools:
Reggie Jackson, Boston College
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Dwyane Wade, Marquette
Jimmy Butler, Marquette
John Collins, Wake Forest

HM:
Russell Westbrook, UCLA (a little outside the top 100)
Paul Millsapp, Louisiana Tech
Kenneth Faried, Morehead State
Kent Bazemore, Old Dominion
Josh Richardson, Tennessee
Bryn Forbes, Michigan State
 
Not quite. He was certainly overlooked, but he was still a top 300 recruit... and he pulled in an offer from VT, albeit very late in the process.

stephcurry.jpg


He got that offer because his mom and dad went there. Top 300 recruit is how many stars, 2, maybe 3? Him blowing up at Davidson had something to do with Seth transferring from Liberty to Duke even though Seth is a good player.
 
He got that offer because his mom and dad went there. Top 300 recruit is how many stars, 2, maybe 3? Him blowing up at Davidson had something to do with Seth transferring from Liberty to Duke even though Seth is a good player.

3-star recruit. And yes, his parents went to VT. Steph committed to Davidson in September of his senior year. Had he waited until the spring, I think he would have merited more offers from powers schools. He was just painfully thin as a junior in h.s. and that scared a lot of programs away. There are plenty of recruits in the 200-300 range playing for nationally ranked teams. Still overlooked, nonetheless.

As far as Seth Curry, he was even less sought after than Steph. He wasn't ranked at all. But averaging over 20 ppg as a true freshmen certainly makes one worthy of transferring to just about any team in the country. Having the clout that comes with the Curry name didn't hurt, of course.
 
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Culver was just undervalued by recruiting sites because he is from Lubbock.

Culver was not undervalued by many schools in Texas.
Very rarely do players receive offers from all 5 of the P5 schools in Texas because very few players can fit all systems.
Culver was an elite player before he came to Texas Tech and left there as an elite player.
 
I was thinking about this just a few days ago. Cauley-Steain, Oladipo, and Harrell all came to mind.

Buddy Hield looks to be solid. I believe he averaged 20+ PPG this season.
 
I would agree with Buddy Hield. Flew under the radar, stayed four years, got better each year, and looks to have a solid NBA career ahead of him. Want to list the KU guys like Frank and Devonte, however I feel their roles in the NBA will be marginal at best. I guess though that even making the NBA when there are over 100 players from your own graduating class that are better than you (or 91 in Franks class) does say something to work ethic and 'coaching them up'.
 
Every single year there are multiple draft selections that stayed 3/4 years in college to become NBA-worthy. Pretty broad question... I could endlessly ramble off names.

The most recent NBA superstar that is 100% college made (3+ yrs) coming to my mind is Victor Oladipo. He was pretty much a nobody when he headed to IU and 3 years later he was a consensus All-American and now he’s been a NBA all-star a few times.
 
to be developed into NBA potential, IYO? Not someone coming to the college game as a pit stop that everyone expects to go pro.

Willie Cauley Stein comes to mind for me. Stayed through his junior year, wasn't a force to be reckoned with on the court early on, but stayed with Cal, worked on his game and has a decent NBA career going. He's not going to be an all-star, but already makes more than all of us combined.

cauleysteinshirt.jpg
Victor Oladipo is i think the poster child for your question. He came in as a incredibly raw 3 star player that i don't believe was even in the top 150 for his class. However, each of his 3 seasons in college improved over the previous.

So, he came in as an unheralded 3 star player that no one new anything about. To finishing as either the POY, or runner up his final year in college. To finally finish it up as the #2 pick in the NBA draft.

Another great example (assuming he does well in the NBA) is Carson Edwards. I don't think he had many major D1 offers.
 
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Mfiondu Kabengele was a no star recruit who didn’t have even mid-major offers. Redshirted at FSU and blossomed into a likely first rounder who was ACC 6th man of the year.

Al Thornton was a very similar track, only he stayed through his senior year and was a lottery pick.
 
Victor Oladipo is i think the poster child for your question. He came in as a incredibly raw 3 star player that i don't believe was even in the top 150 for his class. However, each of his 3 seasons in college improved over the previous.

So, he came in as an unheralded 3 star player that no one new anything about. To finishing as either the POY, or runner up his final year in college. To finally finish it up as the #2 pick in the NBA draft.

Another great example (assuming he does well in the NBA) is Carson Edwards. I don't think he had many major D1 offers.


Carsen Edwards was overshadowed on his AAU team by DeAndre Fox.
Edwards was a beast in HS but a lot thought that when playing against the elite it was Fox carrying the load.

His issue was that Shaka had just started at Texas and didn't really know the players.
I guess Jai Lucas, John Lucas' son, wanted to offer him but others told Shaka not to.

Last December Carsen put 40+ on Texas in a loss. Shaka apologized after the game to Carsen for not offering him.

Carsen had some legit offers and attention out of High School. He wasn't totally under the radar because his AAU team was that good.
 
Carsen Edwards was overshadowed on his AAU team by DeAndre Fox.
Edwards was a beast in HS but a lot thought that when playing against the elite it was Fox carrying the load.

His issue was that Shaka had just started at Texas and didn't really know the players.
I guess Jai Lucas, John Lucas' son, wanted to offer him but others told Shaka not to.

Last December Carsen put 40+ on Texas in a loss. Shaka apologized after the game to Carsen for not offering him.

Carsen had some legit offers and attention out of High School. He wasn't totally under the radar because his AAU team was that good.
Of course he did, but its not like anyone ever expected him to be the BIG POY after his sophomore season either. The odds of him making it to a NBA 1st round draft pick was a very long shot. His talent skyrocketed once he got to college.
 
Of course he did, but its not like anyone ever expected him to be the BIG POY after his sophomore season either. The odds of him making it to a NBA 1st round draft pick was a very long shot. His talent skyrocketed once he got to college.

They still are.
He isn't a first round draft pick.

Edwards had a lot of offers. Most likely won't end up a great NBA player. Will stick around for 5-10 years
 
Lance Thomas is another one.

Pretty sure Lance was a Burger Boy/5 star, no?

HM:
Russell Westbrook, UCLA (a little outside the top 100)
Paul Millsapp, Louisiana Tech
Kenneth Faried, Morehead State
Kent Bazemore, Old Dominion
Josh Richardson, Tennessee
Bryn Forbes, Michigan State

Louisiana Tech, Morehead State, and Old Dominion are high majors? In what, ladies hoops?
 
Louisiana Tech, Morehead State, and Old Dominion are high majors? In what, ladies hoops?

I had a separate starting 5/top 5 for the mid-majors and P6 schools. But, the Honorable Mention list was for all players.

Mid-Majors:
Steph Curry, Davidson
Damian Lillard, Weber State
CJ McCollum, Lehigh
Paul George, Fresno State
Pascal Siakam, New Mexico State

P6 Schools:
Reggie Jackson, Boston College
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Dwyane Wade, Marquette
Jimmy Butler, Marquette
John Collins, Wake Forest

HM:
Russell Westbrook, UCLA (a little outside the top 100)
Paul Millsapp, Louisiana Tech
Kenneth Faried, Morehead State
Kent Bazemore, Old Dominion
Josh Richardson, Tennessee
Bryn Forbes, Michigan State
 
I had a separate starting 5/top 5 for the mid-majors and P6 schools. But, the Honorable Mention list was for all players.

Ah, HM was honorable mention, not high major. Should have been obvious, but I figured you might have been a big La Tech Lady Techsters fan from when they were a powerhouse.
 
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Kawhi only got pac 12 offers after he was commited, a big part of that is he improved a lot his senior year in HS. Won the HS B-ball Cali player of the year, only didn’t make MCDAA for political reasons. While he made strides at SDSU/HS and obviously the nba I wouldn’t say SDSU had huge effect on his development
 
to be developed into NBA potential, IYO? Not someone coming to the college game as a pit stop that everyone expects to go pro.

Willie Cauley Stein comes to mind for me. Stayed through his junior year, wasn't a force to be reckoned with on the court early on, but stayed with Cal, worked on his game and has a decent NBA career going. He's not going to be an all-star, but already makes more than all of us combined.

cauleysteinshirt.jpg
D Graham
Frank Mason
 
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^Sindarius was 34th in the RSCI Rankings. Not a huge surprise to see a top-40 recruit do well as a 4-year player in college.
 
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