Members of the Long Beach State men’s basketball team can say they defended some of the NBA’s top selections in tomorrow’s NBA draft.
John Wall, who is projected to be the No. 1 overall pick for the Washington Wizards, headlines the list of notable players the 49ers played against last season. The draft will be nationally televised on ESPN at 4 p.m.
Wall scored 19 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go with five assists in Kentucky’s 86-73 home victory over LBSU at Rupp Arena. The 6-foot-4 point guard dazzled the college basketball world immediately in his lone season with the Wildcats and has been the consensus No. 1 pick since he graduated high school.
“You don’t know whether he is going to give you a solid game, or put you on SportsCenter Top 10,” said Greg Plater, a key reserve and guard for the 49ers. “I think it was a great experience playing against a player like John Wall, because of the skill level and potential he possesses.
“He is such a great open court player, who isn’t selfish at all, when he could be with the amount of freedom he is given. I think he has things to work on, but he has a chance to be a very special player in the NBA.”
Four of Wall’s teammates — projected lottery pick DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson and seldom-used Daniel Orton — also are among the 108 prospects in the draft pool, and all four played at least 10 minutes in last December’s contest against the 49ers. Cousins, Bledsoe and Orton are all leaving Lexington, Ky., after just one season.
A bruising 6-foot-11, 270-pound man-child, Cousins has a high ceiling for a future but could be plagued by a temper that resembles NBA technical foul magnet Rasheed Wallace. Plater thinks otherwise.
“I think he is a very determined player with more heart than his physical emotions may show because his demeanor is calm,” Plater said, “but his passion and love for the game became evident throughout the season.”
Frank Burlison, a Long Beach Press-Telegram staff writer and member of the College Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, said Cousins could be taken “as early as No. 5” by the Sacramento Kings.
Bledsoe is a 6-foot-1 streaky sharpshooter expected to be a mid-first rounder, but has a shot at the lottery. Patterson, the lone junior among the quartet, is a 6-foot-9 power forward projected to be a borderline lottery pick in some mock drafts including The Sporting News and NBA.com.
Orton is one of the draft’s puzzling early-entry prospects after averaging just 3.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while playing behind Cousins and Patterson. A 6-10, 255-pound forward, Orton is expected to be a mid-to-late first rounder by most but did appear in three of the 13 lottery mock drafts on NBA.com.
The Texas trio of Avery Bradley, Damion James and Dexter Pittman dealt the ‘Niners a 33-point loss — their worst of the season — in early December.
Bradley is a 6-foot-2 freshman stud who Burlison said could be selected in the top-10, but his height and scoring ability puts him in that “tweener” discussion about whether he’s a point guard or a shooting guard on the pro level.
James, a polished 6-7 forward expected to land in the first round, is the Big 12 Conference’s record-holder in rebounds and double-doubles, and earned a spot on the Associated Press All-American third team. Pittman stands at nearly 300 pounds and, according to NBAdraft.net, could be selected late in the second round or not at all.
West Virginia, which faced LBSU in the 76 Classic Thanksgiving tournament last season, is losing senior Da’Sean Butler and sophomore Devin Ebanks.
Butler was a finalist for every major individual award and named to the John Wooden All-America team, but the nation’s last image of him was writhing on the floor in pain after tearing a ligament in his left knee against Duke in the Final Four. The 6-foot-7 forward was unable to participate in the pre-draft combine in Chicago. Burlison said Butler might land in the middle of the second round but could go undrafted.
“Torn ACL hurt his cause,” Burlison said.
Ebanks was in uniform but did not play against the 49ers, and his draft stock has dropped since the beginning of the season. Ebanks is still a late first-round to early second-round talent, Burlison said.
In that same tournament was Clemson’s Trevor Booker, who is an undersized 6-foot-7, 240-pound power forward with a limited skill set around the basket, but asserted himself in the paint against the equally undersized 49ers. He’s expected to be a late-first to early second-round selection.
LBSU challenged Notre Dame and 6-8 senior forward Luke Harangody for a half before losing by 20 in South Bend, Ind., early in the season. Burlison said he has “physical limitations” as a power forward and should land somewhere in the second round.
The second round could also feature a pair of national champion Blue Devils, who handed the ‘Niners a 21-point defeat four days after Christmas.
Brian Zoubek, a 7-1 center who Burlison projects as a “high to mid-second round” selection, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked a pair of shots in the national championship game against the Butler Bulldogs. Jon Scheyer, a 6-foot-5 guard who can keep turnovers to a minimum, is a late-second rounder but could go undrafted, Burlison said.
Syracuse’s Andy Rautins, an above-average 3-point shooter, and 6-9 forward Arinze Onuaku also played against the 49ers in the 2008-09 season. Teammate Wesley Johnson, a likely top-5 selection, was on the team but did not play.
Looking ahead to the 2011 draft class, the 49ers will play at North Carolina next season against the nation’s No. 1 incoming recruit and possible No. 1 overall selection Harrison Barnes.
“Playing against this kind of talent is excellent and a great opportunity for the program itself because we’re getting national exposure and the opportunity to get ourselves on the radar with wins,” Plater said. “It’s also great because it shows you the level of NBA lottery players. So, as a team, we talk about it all the time and it helps us set our standards higher as players because we know we can compete with teams at that level.
“The next step is beating those teams, which we plan on doing this following year.”
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