Bruised Egos: Gifted Guards Dotson, Howard and Powell Join Undrafted A-As
NCAA consensus All-Americans Devon Dotson (Kansas), Markus Howard (Marquette) and Myles Powell (Seton Hall) weren't among the chosen few in this year's NBA draft. Of course, the NBA is a difficult nut to crack. Although the trio of gifted guards sported great credentials, there was no guarantee they would be selected this year; primarily because of the continued emphasis on international players. Thus they took a crash-to-earth course at the school of hard knocks along with fellow undrafted early entrants Ty-Shon Alexander (Creighton), Brendan Bailey (Marquette), Jermaine Bishop (Norfolk State), Dachon Burke (Nebraska/South Alabama), Malik Fitts (Saint Mary's), Ashton Hagans (Kentucky), Rayshaun Hammonds (Georgia), Niven Hart (Fresno State), Nate Hinton (Houston), Mason Jones (Arkansas), Naji Marshall (Xavier), Isiaha Mike (SMU), EJ Montgomery (Kentucky), Nate Pierre-Louis (Temple), Jordan Tucker (Butler), Nick Weatherspoon (Mississippi State), Kaleb Wesson (Ohio State), Kahlil Whitney (Kentucky), Emmitt Williams (LSU) and Omer Yurtseven (Georgetown).
With or without a college diploma in tow, were these misguided undergrads thinking with same adeptness as embarrassment-to-village-idiots Jussie Smollett? Were they as delusional as compromised Congressman Adam "Shifty" Schiff exhibiting his impeachment expertise getting punked by Russian prankster? Denied sneaker honorariums during an FBI probe, undrafted scholars may be swayed to join lunatic leftist leeches seeking reparations from NBA "owners" or boycotting "one-percenter" NBA foreigners stealing their jobs. Amid truly smelly progressive puke convulsing after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death left vacancy on Supreme Court impacting bloodthirsty #PlannedMurderhood obsession with butchering innocent babies in womb, it could blossom into one of those get in line behind the other kneeling mindless "diverse" robot routines and stand by for further "Strzok-out" instruction.
Dotson, Howard and Powell are among 16 NCAA consensus All-Americans to go undrafted in a 11-season span. Do you need any more evidence that the quality of play at the collegiate level has diminished in recent years? The NBA draft was reduced to seven rounds in 1985, three rounds in 1988 and to its present two rounds in 1989. Centers Bill Spivey of Kentucky and Sherman White of LIU, All-Americans in the early 1950s, went undrafted by the NBA allegedly because of possible repercussions stemming from a game-fixing scandal. A total of 42 All-Americans, five in 2011, have gone undrafted by the NBA thus far in the 21st Century.
Ten years ago, Sherron Collins (Kansas) and Scottie Reynolds (Villanova) became the initial NCAA consensus first-team All-Americans not to be selected in the NBA draft prior to Howard and Powell joining them. They're not a motley crew, but following is an alphabetical list of All-Americans who weren't selected in an NBA draft:
*NCAA consensus first-team All-American.
**NCAA consensus second-team All-American.
NOTE: Bell, Booker, Collins, Ferrell, Hansbrough, Haslem, Jennings, Jones, Kilpatrick, Lucas, McNeal, Motley, Ray, Sanchez, Smith, Uthoff, VanVleet and Wiltjer went on to play in the NBA after signing as free agents. Pratt played in the ABA.