Cason Wallace Jalen Hood-Schifino

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — This was not one of those epic years where the first round of the NBA Draft was packed with players from the University of Kentucky.

There was no reason to run to the record book. Only one of John Calipari’s former players — guard Cason Wallace — had the credentials to be invited to the Green Room at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Thursday night.

That left two questions:

How high would Wallace be selected?

And, would his name be called before or after Jalen Hood-Schifino, the one-and-done point guard at Indiana?

The answer came with the 10th pick: Wallace went to his hometown team, the Dallas Mavericks, but they traded Wallace to Oklahoma City. It's the 16th consecutive season UK has produced a first-round draft pick.

A 6 foot, 4 inch guard, Wallace averaged 11.7 points and 4.3 assists for the Wildcats last season. He went 7 picks ahead of Hood-Schifino, who will join LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the Los Angeles Lakers. They took him with the No. 17 pick.

In one of the night's biggest surprises, Indiana center Trayce Jackson-Davis slid to the next to last pick, going No. 57 to the Golden State Warriors, who acquired him from Washington. The Big Ten Player of the Year as well as the all-time leading rebounder for the Hoosiers, Jackson-Davis was projected as a mid-second round pick or higher in at least eight mock NBA Drafts.

He was not pleased by the snub, although Golden State will chase its fifth NBA title of the Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green Era.

In the final pick, Milwaukee drafted UK freshman forward Chris Livingston, who averaged 6.3 points and 4.2 rebounds.

Two former Kentucky players were also not drafted -- forwards Oscar Tshiebwe and Jacob Toppin. Tshiebwe was a two-time all-American as well as the consensus national player of the year in 2022.

Wallace was the 33rd Kentucky player coached by Calipari to be drafted in the first round since 2010. UK includes two other players — guard Shaedon Sharpe last season and center Enes Kanter (who later changed his last name to Freedom) in 2011— on its list of first-round picks. Although they practiced with the Wildcats neither Sharpe nor Kanter played for Kentucky.

Hood-Schifino became the first Mike Woodson recruit to be drafted. He also joined Eric Gordon (2008); Noah Vonleh (2014) and Romeo Langford (2019) as the only IU freshmen to be drafted. It was the first time IU had two players taken since 2017 when OG Anunoby and Thomas Bryant were picked.

Hood-Schifino averaged 13.5 points and 3.7 at IU, including a career-high 35 points when the Hoosiers won at Purdue. A native of Pittsburgh, Hood-Schifino measured at 6 feet, 6 inches.

The first overall pick was Victor Yembanyama, a 7 foot, 5 inch, 227-pound center from France. He’ll go to the San Antonio Spurs and Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich as the first native of France taken with the No. 1 pick.

He was followed by the first college player selected— Brandon Miller of Alabama.

Although the Crimson Tide were the overall top seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, the Crimson Tide lost to San Diego State in a Sweet Sixteen game at the KFC Yum! Center. Miller shot 3 for 19, 1 for 10 from distance.

After Portland selected Scoot Henderson with the third pick, twins were selected with consecutive picks for the first time since 2011.

After Houston took Amen Thompson, Detroit selected his brother Ausar. They’re 6-7 forwards who played at Overtime Elite instead of in college basketball. The last twins selected back-to-back were the Markieff and Marcus Morris of Kansas in 2011.

It was the first time since 2001 that four of the first five picks did not play college basketball.

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