Kentucky’s streak of 10 straight years with an NBA Draft lottery pick ends

The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team doesn’t begin its season for another week, but the program’s already had a streak come to an end in 2020.

UK for the first time under head coach John Calipari did not have a player selected among the first 14 picks of the NBA Draft, commonly referred to as the “lottery” portion of the event since those picks are determined via a lottery of the league’s worst-performing teams each season.

John Wall, taken No. 1 overall in the 2010 draft, kicked off a streak of 21 Kentucky players taken in the NBA’s lottery section over 10 straight drafts. It had at least two selections in the lottery in all of those years except 2013 (Nerlens Noel), 2014 (Julius Randle) and 2017 (Jamal Murray).

Calipari had a streak of 12 straight drafts with a lottery pick come to an end; Derrick Rose in 2008 and Tyreke Evans in 2009 were taken among the top five picks while he was at Memphis.

PJ Washington (12th overall to Charlotte) and Tyler Herro (13th overall to Miami) kept the streaks alive late in last year’s draft.

This was the first season since Calipari became UK’s head coach that multiple Southeastern Conference players were selected before a single Kentucky player. Four were picked in the lottery: Georgia’s Anthony Edwards went No. 1 overall to the Minnesota Timberwolves; Isaac Okoro of Auburn was picked No. 5 by the Cleveland Cavaliers; Alabama’s Kira Lewis was claimed No. 13 overall by the New Orleans Pelicans; and Vanderbilt’s Aaron Nesmith went No. 14 to the Boston Celtics.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, it was also the first NBA Draft that at least one of college basketball’s “bluebloods” — Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina — did not have a lottery selection since 2000. Kentucky’s streak of 10 straight drafts with a lottery selection was the longest since the lottery began in 1985.

This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 9:29 PM.