The NBA Playoffs are underway, and you are probably asking yourself: Which of these guys had the best NIT career? Which is where we come in. To tell you that. To answer that question for you. To say, “_____ had the best NIT career.” (I really don’t know—it’s such a hard call. We are not actually going to answer this question for you.)
We only went through guys who were listed on the Basketball Reference box score from this weekend’s games, so if there are other players in the NBA Playoffs, well, you’ll have to find out how those guys did in the NIT elsewhere. This took long enough as it is (just kidding please tell us if there were any roster additions after Game 1 so we can check for our kings).
Without further ado…
Guys Whose Teams Played in the NIT
- Danuel House Jr. (Texas A&M, 2015)
- Cameron Johnson (Pitt, 2015)
- OG Anunoby (Indiana, 2017)
None of these guys played in the NIT—I’m assuming House was hurt, I think Johnson was redshirting, Anunoby was hurt and by the way that was the team where Tom Crean got fired and yes Anunoby getting hurt may have caused Tom Crean to get fired—but their teams did, and we think that deserves some love. It’s a team sport, after all.
Guys Who Played in the NIT, But Wouldn’t Be in an NIT Hall of Fame
- Jeff Green (Georgetown, 2005)
- Paul Millsap (Louisiana Tech, 2006)
- James Harden (Arizona State, 2008)
- Klay Thompson (Washington State, 2009 & 2011)
- Steph Curry (Davidson, 2009)
- Greg Monroe (Georgetown, 2009)
- Tony Snell (New Mexico, 2011)
- Damion Lee (Drexel, 2012)
- Royce O’Neale (Denver, 2013)
- Jake Layman (Maryland, 2013)
- Jordan Clarkson (Missouri, 2014)
- Sterling Brown (SMU, 2014)
- Delon Wright (Utah, 2014)
- Luke Kornet (Vanderbilt, 2015)
- Alex Caruso (Texas A&M, 2015)
- Cameron Payne (Murray State, 2015)
- Dorian Finney-Smith (Florida, 2016)
- Malik Beasley (Florida State, 2016)
- Pascal Siakam (New Mexico State, 2016)
- Matisse Thybulle (Washington, 2016 & 2018)
- Armoni Brooks (Houston, 2017)
- Jaylen Nowell (Washington, 2018)
- Payton Pritchard (Oregon, 2018)
- Sam Hauser (Marquette, 2018)
- Skylar Mays (LSU, 2018)
- Troy Brown Jr. (Oregon, 2018)
- Isaiah Joe (Arkansas, 2019)
- Herbert Jones (Alabama, 2019)
- Charles Bassey (Western Kentucky, 2019)
What a list, right? Noteworthy things about these guys:
- Curry averaged 29 points per game in his NIT career, but he turned the ball over 6.5 times per game and averaged 23 attempts.
- Payne average 19 points per game and notched a double-double. He was also involved in one of the wildest finishes in recent NIT memory.
- Finney-Smith fouled out in Florida’s quarterfinal loss but did record a double-double in the second round win over Ohio State, the biggest postseason game between those two programs in history.
- Herbert Jones was involved in Alabama’s upset loss to Norfolk State in 2019, but he had a pretty great game, at least from the stats we’ve got access to.
- Yes, 2018 Washington and Oregon each had multiple future NBA players on their rosters (2016 Washington did too). The Pac-12 is wild, man.
Guys Who Played in the NIT, and also Probably Wouldn’t Be in an NIT Hall of Fame, But Were Studs
- Patty Mills (Saint Mary’s, 2009: Averaged 22.7 ppg, had a double-double against Davidson to knock out Curry in the second round)
- JaMychal Green (Alabama, 2011: Notched multiple double-doubles in the Tide’s run to a runner-up finish, with a 22-point outburst in the Final Four game)
- Bobby Portis (Arkansas, 2014: Recorded a double-double in every game in his NIT career, and that career lasted more than one game!)
- Marquese Chriss (Washington, 2016: Averaged 23 ppg, recorded a double-double in the Huskies’ first round victory)
- John Konchar (IPFW, 2016: Pulled off the more-rebounds-than-points double-double in a 79-55 first round loss to San Diego State, and did it emphatically—18 boards, ten points)
- Josh Okogie (Georgia Tech, 2017: Was part of the Josh Pastner team, averaged 19.8 ppg)
- Derrick White (Colorado, 2017: Dropped 30 in a first round loss to Tacko Fall)
- Jordan McLaughlin (USC, 2018: Was part of the Andy Enfield team, did the Portis [double-doubles in every game], scored 26 in the classic against UNC-Asheville, didn’t opt out at Enfield’s command like Chimezie Metu whose professional career has gone nowhere)
- Juwan Morgan (Indiana, 2017 & 2019: Was part of the post-Tom Crean team, 19.5 career NIT ppg, was overlooked in ’19 because everyone was so focused on Romeo Langford)
- Naji Marshall (Xavier, 2019: 19.5 ppg and a ridiculous 21-rebound performance against Toledo in the opening round)
An even better list. I want to see reincarnated college-aged Konchar and Marshall do rebounding drills against each other. I think that if we broadcast that across the border into oppressed countries the world would know peace.
NIT Champions
- Dwight Powell (Stanford, 2012 [lost in ’13])
- Taurean Prince (Baylor, 2013)
- Desmond Bane (TCU, 2017 [lost in ‘19])
- Yuta Watanabe (George Washington, 2016 [lost in ‘15])
- Jaxson Hayes (Texas, 2019)
Of these five…
Hayes was hurt in ’19, but again, it’s a team sport.
Prince is the only one to win an NIT in his only try. Two of the other three did it on their first try, but it still technically took two tries. Also, to be fair, Prince only played in four of the games. Wasn’t exactly the MOP.
Watanabe was a role player still in both ’15 and ’16.
Powell was a role player in ’12, and in ’13 he was good but Stanford didn’t crack the quarterfinals.
Bane has the best NIT résumé of any of them, but while he was good in ’17, he wasn’t great, and in ’19 his best performance was a 30-point night against Nebraska which came in the second round. Couldn’t get his guys past Texas in the Final Four.
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You can see why I struggled to name a best player from this list. Lot of comparable performances. You could make a case for about a dozen of these guys. Guess maybe they can settle some scores these next couple months, even if they’re far from the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, a stage much too big for the NBA Playoffs.
On the team level, it’s a different story. The Timberwolves are pretty clearly the title favorite, so long as they don’t do something silly like keep Okogie and McLaughlin buried on the bench. Prince might not have led Baylor to their championship, but he’s got that winning pedigree. Across the bracket, the White/Morgan combination gives the Celtics a strong case in the East, but the Sixers have a whole lot of NIT dirt under their fingernails, which makes sense playing in such a storied college basketball town.
I have to say, when you look at the NBA this way, I can see the draw. It’s like an old-timers game for the NIT. With a bunch of filler players, too, of course. Since NIT alumni are so rare.
