Multiple Jayhawks Selected in NBA Draft for Second Time in Last Three Years
June 24, 2010
2010 NBA Draft Quotes
NEW YORK –
For the fifth time in team history, Kansas men’s basketball had two players selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. On Thursday, KU’s Cole Aldrich and Xavier Henry were each present for the NBA Draft in the Green Room at historic Madison Square Garden in New York with family and friends.
Aldrich was the first Jayhawk selected going to the New Orleans Hornets as the No. 11 overall pick. Aldrich was also part of a proposed trade between the Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder. Henry was taken just one pick later by the Memphis Grizzlies as the No. 12 overall selection. The 2010 Kansas duo became KU’s first lottery picks since 2003 when Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison achieved the honor.
The two first-round selections for Kansas gives the team nine first-round draft picks since 2000. This total ties Connecticut for the second-most during that span. North Carolina leads with 11 first-round selections since 2000.
Since head coach Bill Self arrived at Kansas in 2003-04, there have been nine Jayhawks selected in the NBA Draft, including six first round picks. Self’s draftees started with Consensus All-American Wayne Simien in 2005. In 2007, KU’s Julian Wright was also a first-round selection.
Following its NCAA National Championship season, KU had five players selected in the 2008 NBA Draft with Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Brandon Rush. The five tied for the most all-time selections of a school in a two-round draft with Connecticut in 2006 and Florida in 2007.
Aldrich, from Bloomington, Minn., concluded his Kansas career second on the KU blocked shots list with 253 (Greg Ostertag 258 from 1992-95), ninth on the KU rebounds list with 860, tied for fifth with Nick Collison (2000-03) on the KU double-doubles list with 37 and 46th on the KU scoring list with 1,038 points.
As a junior in 2009-10, Aldrich was named the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year and was KU’s first academic All-American since Ryan Robertson in 1999. A 2010 Consensus All-America Second Team selection, Aldrich shattered the Kansas school blocked shots record with 125 and was named the Big 12 Conference Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season, a title he shared in 2009. An Academic All-Big 12 selection for the second consecutive year, Aldrich’s 354 rebounds in 2009-10 ranked eighth on the KU single-season list. His 15 double-doubles his junior campaign tied for eighth-best along with current assistant coach Danny Manning’s 15 in 1988.
As a sophomore, Aldrich took over the middle for Kansas and was one of only three players in the Big 12 to average a double-double with 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds. He recorded the first official triple-double in Kansas men’s basketball history with 13 points, 20 rebounds and a school-record 10 blocked shots in the NCAA Tournament second round against Dayton.
As a freshman, Aldrich appeared in all 40 games of Kansas’ NCAA National Championship season. He averaged 8.3 minutes per game playing behind the post-play tutelage of NBA Draft picks Arthur, Jackson and Kaun.
Henry played one season at Kansas in which the Jayhawks went 33-3, won the Big 12 regular-season title with a 15-1 record, won the Big 12 championship and was ranked No. 1 for 15 weeks during 2009-10. The Oklahoma City native averaged 13.4 ppg for the season, and was KU’s second-leading scorer. Henry’s 483 points are second on the Kansas freshman scoring list and only trailing KU legend and current assistant coach Danny Manning’s 496 points set in 1985.
Henry was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Rookie of the Week three times during the 2009-10 season and led KU in scoring in 11 games. An All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection and freshman All-America by many outlets, Henry led Kansas with 54 steals and had a KU freshman-record-tying seven steals against Baylor (Jan. 20). Henry, who was also named to the 2010 Big 12 All-Rookie team, was second on the team with 69 three-point field goals made and hit multiple three-pointers in 21 contests. He finished fifth in the Big 12 in three-point field goal percentage at 41.8 percent. He ranked 18th in the Big 12 in scoring at 13.4 ppg, eighth in steals at 1.5 and 13th in three-pointers made at 1.9.
A member of the Athletic Director’s and Big 12 Commissioner’s honor rolls in Fall 2009, Henry had four games of 20-plus points this season, including a career-high 31 points against LaSalle at the M&I Bank Kansas City Shootout at the Sprint Center on Dec. 12.
Kansas NBA Draft History
Kansas NBA First Round Drafts
Clyde Lovellette – 1952
Wilt Chamberlain – 1958
Wayne Hightower – 1961
Walt Wesley – 1966
Jo Jo White – 1969
Bud Stallworth – 1972
Norm Cook – 1976
Darnell Valentine – 1981
Danny Manning – 1988
Mark Randall – 1991
Rex Walters – 1993
Greg Ostertag – 1995
Scot Pollard – 1997
Jacque Vaughn – 1997
Raef LaFrentz – 1998
Paul Pierce – 1998
Drew Gooden – 2002
Nick Collison – 2003
Kirk Hinrich – 2003
Wayne Simien – 2005
Julian Wright – 2007
Brandon Rush – 2008
Darrell Arthur – 2008
Cole Aldrich – 2010
Xavier Henry – 2010
Kansas in the Overall Draft
Year – name (round)
1948 – Otto Schnellbacher (Providence region)
1952 – Clyde Lovellette (1)
1953 – Dean Kelley (8), Gil Reich (11)
1954 – B.H. Born (3), Alan Kelley (7)
1957 – Maurice King (6)
1959 – Wilt Chamberlain (1), Ron Loneski (10)
1961 – Wayne Hightower (1), Bill Bridges (3)
1963 – Nolen Ellison (4)
1966 – Walt Wesley (1), Al Lopes (13)
1967 – Ron Franz (10)
1968 – Roger Bohnesnstiel (9)
1969 – Jo Jo White (1), Dave Nash (4), Bruce Sloan (11)
1971 – Roger Brown (3), Dave Robisch (5), Pierre Russell (13)
1972 – Bud Stallworth (1)
1974 – Ken Koenigs (5)
1975 – Rick Suttle (7), Roger Morningstar (8)
1976 – Norm Cook (1)
1977 – Herb Nobles (6)
1978 – John Douglas (6)
1979 – Paul Mokeski (2), Randolph Carroll (10)
1981 – Darnell Valentine (1), Art Housey (3), John Crawford (7)
1982 – Tony Guy (2), David Magley (2)
1984 – Carl Henry (4), Brian Martin (9)
1986 – Greg Drieling (2), Ron Kellogg (2), Calvin Thompson (4)
1988 – Danny Manning (1), Archie Marshall (3)
1990 – Kevin Pritchard (2)
1991 – Mark Randall (1)
1993 – Rex Walters (1), Adonis Jordan (2)
1994 – Darrin Hancock (2)
1995 – Greg Ostertag (1)
1997 – Scot Pollard (1), Jacque Vaughn (1)
1998 – Raef LaFrentz (1), Paul Pierce (1)
1999 – Ryan Robertson (2)
2001 – Eric Chenowith (2)
2002 – Drew Gooden (1)
2003 – Nick Collison (1), Kirk Hinrich (1)
2005 – Wayne Simien (1)
2007 – Julian Wright (1)
2008 – Brandon Rush (1), Darrell Arthur (1), Mario Chalmers (2), Darnell Jackson (2), Sasha Kaun (2)
2010 – Cole Aldrich (1), Xavier Henry (1)
