by Rey
I recently attended a high school state all-star basketball game. There were two guards from a state championship team that I looked forward to seeing play. Behind me, a discussion began about one of the players, a point guard that will attend Yale.
“Why is he going to Yale? He ain’t going pro if he’s going to the Ivy League. Must not have had a lot of offers. They don’t even have athletic scholarships in the Ivy League.”
I quickly turned to the player’s bio in the program and confirmed his college of choice. It said, amongst his impressive accolades as a high school player, that he will attend Yale University and “wants to pursue a career in law and own his own law practice.” No better place to prepare oneself for the law field.
But a professional basketball career? I thought the comment was somewhat ignorant because surely there are a couple of Ivy League players in the NBA today. In actuality, it’s been quite some time since an Ivy League player made an NBA roster, let alone get drafted.
I thought of perhaps the greatest backcourt in Ivy League history, the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney. NBA fans remember Matt Maloney more than Allen because of his performances with the Houston Rockets in the late-1990s where he started all 82 games his rookie year.
While Maloney went the undrafted, Jerome Allen is the last Ivy League player to be drafted into the NBA. The Minnesota Timberwolves selected Allen with the forty-ninth overall pick in 1995. He later played for the Pacers and Nuggets.
In fact, there have only been two players from the Ivy League selected the last two decades. Dartmouth’s Walter Palmer preceded Allen in the 1990 draft. Quite the decline from the 1980s that saw thirteen Ivy League players selected.
Allen’s selection into the NBA probably came as no surprise to basketball purists. He and Maloney’s career at Penn became one of, if not the most, dominant in Ivy League history.
Under Allen’s guidance, Penn achieved an astonishing 51-5 record in Ivy League play and an overall record of 85-24. Allen achieved multiple player of the year awards for both the Big 5 and Ivy League. Behind Allen and Maloney, Penn saw its return to the national poll in more than a decade. Penn’s highest spot in the AP Poll was 21st in 1995; they also reached 24th the previous season.
Allen and the Quakers advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 1994 by defeating sixth seeded Nebraska 90-80. They lost their second round game, but it was the first time in fourteen years that Penn advanced past the first round.
Allen and Maloney almost did it again in their final season. Unfortunately Antonio McDyess’ 39 points helped Alabama defeat the Quakers 91-85 in overtime in the first round of the 1995 tournament despite 53 combined points from dynamic Penn backcourt.
With an illustrious collegiate basketball career sans an athletic scholarship, Allen’s induction into the NBA might have appeared to be a return to the 1980s for league often dubbed the “Ancient Eight.”
Yet here we sit in 2009 without a single player from the Ivy League earning an NBA paycheck. It is one of six conferences that did not have a player in the NBA during the 2008-2009 season.
Fran Dunphy, former Penn coach and current Temple University coach, said that tougher non-conference schedules for Ivy League teams have seen an influx of professional scouts at games. But that was said in 2005 and since then a couple of worthy prospects have come through the league and failed to reach the NBA.
One such prospect, Ugonna Onyekwe, played for Dunphy while at Penn. He finished his career as a two-time Ivy League player of the year and remains the school’s second leading scorer with 1,732 points. Before he arrived on the Philadelphia campus, some speculated that the London native would possibly be the first Ivy League player ever to leave school early to enter the NBA draft.
Onyekwe, however, did end up playing four years at Penn and made one final push for his NBA future in the 2003 NCAA tournament. Though his Quakers were eliminated in the first round by Oklahoma State, the 6’8″ forward scored 30 points and earned the praises of legendary coach Eddie Sutton. Sutton said that Onyekwe was “probably as good as any player we have in our conference and we have some good ones in the Big 12.”
NBA scouts had seen Onyekwe play and often confirmed that his talent, though physically undersized, exuded that of an NBA player.
It was not to be. He went undrafted and sought a professional basketball career in Europe. As of last season, Onyekwe still earns a living playing basketball in Israel.
The most recent NBA prospect to come through the Ivy League was—surprise—another Penn Quaker.
Ibrahim Jaaber played for Penn between 2004 and 2007. He, like his Quaker predecessors Allen and Onyekwe, won the Ivy League player of the year twice and even became the first Big 5 player of the year from Penn since 1979.
The 6’2″ guard went undrafted but played for the Detroit Pistons in the 2007 Summer League. Unfortunately, an NBA contract never resulted in his short time with the Pistons summer league team, but a European one did.
Jaaber still plays professionally in Europe and also plays for the Bulgarian national team.
Finish reading this article – Part II
Interesting that there were more players from the Ivy League in the NBA during the 80s. The level of team play in the 80s was superior to what we have seen for the last ten years in the NBA
How many Northwestern Univ. hoops players have played in the NBA over the past 30 years??? (summer league doesn’t count). I honestly can’t remember any, but surely there’s got to be one … even on a 10 day contract.
Is Northwestern in the Ivy League?
No, but they claim to be the “Harvard of the Midwest”. So even though they’re in a “major conference”, I think we’ll find a total lack of alums making the NBAs as … JUST LIKE THE IVY LEAGUE !!!
Wally – basketbal reference has a total of 15 players to make it to the NBA through Northwestern. It doesn’t look like they currently have a player on an NBA roster.
https://www.databasebasketball.com/players/bycollege.htm?sch=Northwestern+University
Interesting in the grand scheme of things. They have to have produced the feswest out of major conference schools. But, I took the Ivy League as a whole conference, otherwise NW would definitely qualify for a discussion on least likely to produce an NBA talent.
Just for a comparison, the two Ivy League schools to produce the most NBA players are the two we’d expect:
Penn = 12
Princeton = 10
NW seems Ivy League worthy when it comes to basketball. The Harvard of the West, Stanford, has produced 20, two of which that made it to the hall of fame.
Casey – this is true. The other thing that bothers me is how isolated conferences are becoming as far as producing NBA talent. It’s hard to compare it to other sports because baseball and football obviously field more players and in baseball’s case, you can be a “pro” player and never get out of A ball. But it’s becoming pretty clear to me that Europe has replaced smaller conferences. Remember we talked about how many teams this year picked guys from Europe, even in the first round, and the analysts said “Oh – they’ll probably leave him in Europe for another few years to develop.” This has greatly impacted players from the Ivy League and other “smaller” DI conferences.
“In fact, there have only been two players from the Ivy League selected the last two decades.”
Don’t forget the NBA draft was trimmed from seven rounds to two rounds in 1989. It was 10 rounds before that. Certainly the decrease in
“In fact, there have only been two players from the Ivy League selected the last two decades.”
Oops.
Don’t forget the NBA draft was trimmed from seven rounds to two rounds in 1989. It was 10 rounds before that. Certainly the decrease in round has had an effect on the number of Ivy League players chosen. Dartmouth’s Alex Barnett would have been picked this year if the draft were 10 rounds. Maybe even if it were seven.
Very true, Ahmbudzmin. That does explain why there aren’t many drafted now versus then.
The number of teams have increased, which made me wonder why there wouldn’t hypothetically be more roster spots, drafted or undrafted. Kind of why I lumped Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney together. Maloney was not drafted but found a home in the NBA and an impact.
Barnett, who was also the Ivy League player of the year this past season for those who don’t know, was a 6’6″ athletic swingman. Now – how many of those are out there? The thing with the NBA today, to steal from Tim Legler, is you have to have a niche. I don’t know if Barnett really had a niche, I might be wrong because I’ve never seen him play.
The reason I think Wittman has a legitimate chance is because he can potentially be a niche guy. He shoots lights out and has an NBA frame at 6’6″.
Thanks for commenting and adding to the discussion.
Ivy teams could be as good as Duke or Stanford. Only one thing holds them back.
No schlorships!
Schwarro,
You are right, Ivy League could improve on the athletic field if scholarships were included. That makes Ivy League athletes all the more admirable. They play for love of the game.