The 2023 NBA Draft is nearly upon us, with basketball fans everywhere tuning in to see where former NIT stars will play out the remainder of their days on this earth, the greatest honor of their lives already behind them.
Here’s who to watch.
We’ve broken this list up into three categories: Players who made the NIT, players who played in the NIT, and players who slayed in the NIT. We screened anyone listed in the latest mock drafts and/or big boards from Kevin O’Connor and Sam Vecenie, but we may have screened incorrectly? A moving screen, perhaps? Let us know if you notice anyone we left out.
Made the NIT
- Cam Whitmore (Villanova, 2023)
- Jett Howard (Michigan, 2023)
- Keyontae Johnson (Florida, 2022)
- Leaky Black (UNC, 2023)
Cam Whitmore was hurt and didn’t play in Villanova’s loss at Liberty. Jett Howard was hurt and didn’t play in Michigan’s win over Toledo or loss at Vanderbilt. Keyontae Johnson was recovering from almost dying on the court and didn’t play in Florida’s 2022 two-game run. Leaky Black did everything asked of him to make the NIT, but he did not ultimately play, owing to character issues within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and possibly within himself.
Still, all four of these players did what their teams needed to get to the NIT. Bravo, you four, and good luck.
Played in the NIT
- Taylor Hendricks (UCF, 2023)
- Kobe Bufkin (Michigan, 2023)
- Ben Sheppard (Belmont, 2022)
- Brandon Podziemski (Santa Clara, 2023)
- Colin Castleton (Florida, 2022)
- Mouhamed Gueye (Washington State, 2022 & 2023*)
- Hunter Tyson (Clemson, 2019 & 2023)
- Toumani Camara (Dayton, 2022)
- Jalen Slawson (Furman, 2019)
- Liam Robbins (Vanderbilt, 2022 & 2023*)
- Tosan Evbuomwam (Princeton, 2022)
- Caleb McConnell (Rutgers, 2023)
- Justyn Mutts (Virginia Tech, 2023)
- D’Moi Hodge (Cleveland State, 2022)
- Damion Baugh (Memphis, 2021)
- Justin Powell (Washington State, 2023)
- Tyree Appleby (Florida, 2022)
- Malachi Smith (Wright State, 2019)
Quite a range here.
Hendricks played well for UCF against Florida, but he was quiet up in Eugene in the Knights’ second round loss. Bufkin had a big game against Toledo (23 points on 13 FGA), but he sat out the Vanderbilt loss. Sheppard had a rough night against Vanderbilt back in 2022, going 1 of 6 from three. Podziemski played pretty well against Sam Houston State this year, but he couldn’t handle the pressure, turning the ball over five times (thank goodness SHSU isn’t in the NBA). Castleton had a double double against Iona in the 2022 first round but vanished at times during the second round loss to Xavier. Gueye was a role player on Washington State’s 2022 team but was hurt this year. Tyson had double-digit boards and single-digit points against Morehead State, which normally we’d call a gritty performance except he only had that few of points because he couldn’t hit a shot and he nonetheless kept shooting them, which isn’t really gritty (also, Clemson opted out after already taking the floor). Tyson also played sparingly in both Clemson’s 2019 games, and he even appeared in the Virtual NIT in 2020. (We didn’t include anyone who only made the Virtual NIT because they failed to stop the novel coronavirus from emerging and therefore didn’t actually do everything they needed to play in the NIT.) Camara played in both Dayton’s 2022 games, but he didn’t do much I remember. Slawson played three minutes in Furman’s 2019 loss to Wichita State. Robbins had a few solid games in 2022 during Vanderbilt’s quarterfinal run, and he made the Virtual NIT in 2020 while at Drake, but he was hurt this year. Evbuomwam had a double double for Princeton against VCU in 2022, playing nearly every minute, but he turned the ball over five times, missed six of his ten free throw attempts, and fouled out while the Rams ran away with it. McConnell played 41 minutes in the Hofstra game this year and had what looked like the put-away buckets (including The Dunk), but history had other plans. Mutts had a solid night against Cincinnati but it wasn’t quite enough. Hodge had a good night from the line and a bad night from the floor as Cleveland State fell short against the eventual national champions in 2022. Baugh won a title at Memphis in 2021 and had six boards in that legendary Boise State game but played a smaller role overall. Powell went invisible against Eastern Washington in Washington State’s first round loss this year. Appleby played for Florida in 2022 and I appear to have no other notes than that he played. Smith scored two points and committed three turnovers in Wright State’s 2019 loss to Clemson.
Looks like we’re looking at eight or nine of these guys getting drafted.
Slayed in the NIT
- Colby Jones (Xavier, 2022)
- Landers Nolley II (Memphis, 2021; Cincinnati, 2023)
- Kendric Davis (SMU, 2021 & 2022; TCU, 2019)
- Darius McGhee (Liberty, 2023)
Colby Jones is the only guy at this level expected to be drafted, and it’ll be a surprise to me at least if he doesn’t go first overall. It’s not every day you get a chance to employ a man who scored 14.8 points per game in a national championship run and played all 40 minutes in the title game. Absolute legend, Colby Jones. Can’t wait to see what he does with the Spurs.
Landers Nolley is also a national champion, having won it all at Memphis and even won Most Outstanding Player. He had his moments this year—notched a double double against Virginia Tech, scored 23 in The Utah Valley Game—but he was neither a national champion nor the Most Outstanding Player. We can say it. He peaked in 2021.
Kendric Davis was a role player on the TCU team that made the Final Four in 2019, then saw where things were going and went to more NIT-centric climes, turning in some big performances for SMU over their 2021 and 2022 appearances. There’s a reason Davis was the top-ranked transfer last offseason, and that reason is that he dropped 28 on Boise State in 2021 and 30 on Washington State in 2022.
Darius McGhee only played two NIT games this year, but he averaged 28.5 points per game, and who knows? Maybe Wisconsin bringing in the biggest crowd of the tournament for that second-round tilt was because Madisonians really wanted to see this man shoot the ball.
(Nolley, Davis, and McGhee are not projected to be drafted, which means they’re probably going to make bank as undrafted free agents.)
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Overall, roughly a quarter of players drafted tonight are expected to be NIT alumni. That’s way more than Overtime Elite can say.
