It’s been 11 years since the Big East last had a draft night like this.
The last time the league selected three players in the NBA Draft Lottery was in 2013.
It happened Wednesday night, when Connecticut’s Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan were selected fourth and seventh overall by the Spurs and Trail Blazers, respectively, and Providence star Devin Carter was selected 13th by the Kings.
The conference has produced just three lottery picks in the past seven drafts.
“The Big East is probably the best conference in America right now,” Carter said. “I think the Big East is competitive every night from top to bottom. Anybody could win on any given night. The Big East is something else.”
Creighton University wing Baylor Scheierman was selected 30th overall by the Celtics, becoming just the fourth player to be drafted in the first round.
Only the ACC had as many first-round draft picks as the Big East.
It was an especially satisfying night for Connecticut, which has won the past two national championships.
The last time the Huskies had two top-10 picks was in 2004, when Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon were selected No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Tristan Newton and Cam Spencer could be selected in the second round on Thursday.
“I think it just shows that we can take a top-10 player and help him grow in reputation like Steph did,” coach Dan Hurley said of the draft. “We can take a five-star player and help him win a national championship and help him grow in reputation even more. We can also take a player that wasn’t considered an early entrant and line up with them in the lottery and win a championship with them. It just shows that we can develop all types of players.”
There’s a lot of positive things happening in the Big East.
Hurley opted to stay after negotiating with the Lakers, and the conference is expected to announce new television deals with Fox, TNT and NBC later this week.
Wednesday was another big night.
