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The number of former Arizona Wildcats on NBA playoff rosters — the postseason starts today — is seven, which is tied for sixth-most among all of the colleges.
Here is the list of the top 10 (I compiled the information from RealGM.com):
North Carolina – 12
Duke – 10
UCLA – 10
Kansas – 8
Kentucky – 8
Arizona – 7
Florida – 7
Texas – 6
Connecticut – 4
Michigan – 4
Wake Forest – 4
Washington – 4
What makes Arizona’s production even more admirable is that five of the players were Lute Olson recruits and he has been out of coaching for nine seasons now.
Those five players would still be in the top 10. Longtime established coaches, who are still in the game have less, including Rick Pitino, Jim Boeheim and Tom Izzo, each of whom have three former players in the postseason.
The five remaining Olson recruits in the postseason:
Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson of Cleveland, Jason Terry of Houston, Andre Iguodala of Golden State and Jordan Hill of Indiana.
The two players in the playoffs from the Sean Miller era are Stanley Johnson with Detroit and Solomon Hill of Indiana.
The Pac-12 ranks second with former players in the playoffs with 36, trailing the ACC, which has 34. The Pac-12 doubles the Big Ten and Big 12, each with 18 players in the postseason. The SEC ranks third with 25.
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CONFERENCES WITH MOST PLAYERS IN NBA PLAYOFFS
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Good luck to @solohill, @jasonterry31, @andre, @iAmSJ, @Channing_Frye, Richard Jefferson, & J-Hill in the NBA Playoffs! #APlayersProgram
— Arizona Basketball (@APlayersProgram) April 16, 2016
Cousins: #Pistons Tobias Harris @tobias31, #Cavs Channing Frye @Channing_Frye set for playoff square-off via @MLive: https://t.co/ohJV0cMklJ
— David Mayo (@David_Mayo) April 15, 2016
#ChanningFrye & #RichardJefferson played a combined 74 minutes Wed. night @cavs. So there's that. #APlayersProgram #NBA #ArizonaWildcats
— David Kelly (@DavidKellyTNN) April 14, 2016
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The Warriors' X-factor for another Finals run? That'd be Andre Iguodala.https://t.co/abbQd55M3m
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) April 15, 2016
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Andre Iguodala on how he feels now that Golden State has the record: "It feels like we have practice tomorrow."
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 14, 2016
Stanley Johnson ranked #61 in players in the NBA Playoffs https://t.co/0KY44orJYl
— AZ (@ArizonaBeardown) April 16, 2016
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.@jasonterry31: "The road to the championship always goes through the champion." #Rockets #Warriors pic.twitter.com/o3XQMdCOm7
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) April 16, 2016
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
