A Look at Rutgers' NBA Draft History

When it comes to sending talent to the NBA, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights haven't had a lot of success over the years. Their most recent player drafted was back in 2010, in the second round. The last first round pick? A decade ago, and that was just the third time in the entire history of the program that a player from Rutgers had been selected in the first round. To put that in perspective, Kentucky had four players selected in the first round last year, the Big Ten as whole had 4 out of the 10 players selected in the first NBA draft in 1947, and Purdue has had 3 #1 overall draft picks if you count the ABA.

Rutgers' most recent draft pick was Hamady N'Diaye, who was taken with the 56th pick by the Timberwolves in 2010. N'Diaye were traded to the Wizards on draft day. In his NBA career so far,  N'Diaye has only played in 33 games and has a career average of 0.61 points per game. Hamady currently plays for Bnei Herzliya in Israel and his last NBA contract was voided in 2014 when he failed a physical with the Nets.

Quincy Douby was the most recent Rutgers' player to be taken in the first round of the NBA Draft. After his junior season, Douby was taken 19th in the 2006 draft by the Sacramento Kings. Douby played for three seasons in the NBA, but never started a game and ended his career with a scoring average of 4.1. Since then Douby has mostly been playing in Turkey and China, and has said he regrets leaving Rutgers a year early.

Rutgers' other first round picks include Roy Hinson (20th pick in 1983) and James Bailey who was the highest Scarlet Knight ever selected (6th in 1979). Hinson played eight seasons in the NBA, mostly as a starter. He was arguably the most successful Scarlet Knight in NBA history, averaging 14.2 ppg with a career-high of 19.6 coming in the 1985-86 season. Bailey was a freshman on the 1976 Final Four team and was teammates with Eddie Jordan (33rd pick in 1977). He had bit of a journeyman career in the NBA, mostly as a key reserve and occasional starter.

Rutgers NBA Draft history is not very storied, but their next draft pick shouldn't be too far away. Especially if Corey Sanders continues his impressive play throughout his career in the BIg Ten. One final note should be made, in 2003 Dahntay Jones, who played his first two season at Rutgers before transferring to Duke, was selected 20th and has had a long career as a bench player in the NBA.