It’s fun to discuss the NBA draft in terms of which NBA team will benefit the most from their picks as well as which players were drafted too soon or too late. However it is rare that a rookie comes into the league and dominates right away. They may snatch a starting position and put up impressive numbers in their first year, but they almost never make a huge impact right away. They have to develop first. That is why after the NBA draft it is more fun to discuss the NCAA. Imagine losing an NBA quality player at the college level? Now that makes an impact on your team. So instead of further dissecting where the draft picks are headed, were taking you back to where these players came from to see which programs have gaping holes to fill next season. The rules of this evaluation are simple: Two NBA players that leave the NCAA affect the college they attended more than if just one player left. So below are all the colleges that lost 2 or more players this year to the 2009 NBA draft.

• Arizona – Jordan Hill (8) and Chase Budinger (44)
• Arizona State- James Harden (3) and Jeff Pendergraph (31)
• Uconn- Hasheem Thabeet (2) and A.J. Price (52)
• Louisville- Terrance Williams (11) and Earl Clark (14)
• Memphis- Tyreke Evans (4) and Robert Dozier (60)
• North Carolina- Tyler Hansbrough (13)/ Ty Lawson (18)/ Wayne Ellington (28)/ Danny Green (46)
• Oklahoma- Blake Griffin (1) and Taylor Griffin (48)
• Pittsburgh- Sam Young (36) and Dejuan Blair (37)
• UCLA- Jrue Holiday (17) and Darren Collison (21)
• USC- DeMar DeRozan (9) and Taj Gibson (26)
• Wake Forest– James Johnson (16) and Jeff Teague (19)

1. North Carolina wins or technically loses this contest. Four players from their team left the Baby Blue behind. They have by far the most work to do if they are to match the caliber of their championship team this past year.
2. Louisville loses the second most.  Terrance Willams and Earl Clark closed business deals for them on the court and losing them hurts.
3. Arizona State and Wake Forest tie for third. ASU will have a tough time in the Pac-10 without Harden’s scoring and Pendergraph rebounding and blocking shots. Wake Forest finished poorly this last season but will be hard to recognize without James Johnson and Jeff Teague.

Filed under: Dino Gomez, General, NCAA News | Tagged: A.J. Price, Arizona State, Blake Griffin, Chase Budinger, Danny Green, Darren Collison, DeMar DeRozan, Earl Clark, Hasheem Thabeet, James Harden, James Johnson, Jeff Pendergraph, Jeff Teague, Jordan Hill, Jrue Holiday, Memphis, NBA, NCAA, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Robert Dozier, Taj Gibson, Taylor Griffin, Terrance Williams, Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough, Tyreke Evans, UCLA, University of Arizona, University of Connecticut, University of Louisville, USC, Wake Forest, Wayne Ellington | Leave a comment »