Written by Perry Missner at Hoops Manifesto
While I was reading the book about the 2009-2010 Kentucky team a few weeks ago, I began to think about the best duo of players in college basketball who made it to the NBA. The Wildcats have had a nice run of players in the last five years and my guess is that in a few years former Kentucky players will dominate the NBA playoffs. John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins are just 25 years old, but they have already combined to amass 13,000 points. I started poking around Basketball Reference which has a handy tab in which you can see how many players in the NBA went to a particular school. It may be time for a good list of the most prolific teammates from a college team.
Before we get to the list, let’s take a look at current and Hall of Fame pairings (not included in the top ten). Wall and Cousins have the fourth most points of college teammates in the NBA. Joakim Noah and Al Horford have combined for 12,000 points and are just behind the Kentucky duo. Just above them at 14,000 points are Jeff Green and Roy Hibbert, who played together at Georgetown. Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook were together at UCLA and have combined for 19,000 points. The current leaders are Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin who helped establish Texas and Rick Barnes. You might think that this is all Durant (who has scored 15,800 points), but Augustin has provided 5,200 points for six different franchises. He averaged 14.4 points in his third year in the league with Charlotte. It’s nice that Durant and Augustin are teammates again.
There are two pairs of teammates on the list who made it to the Hall of Fame, but the other teammates deserve to be mentioned. Bob Davies and Bobby Wanzer did not play together at Seton Hall (separated by just a year), but did in the NBA for the Rochester Royals. Wanzer joined the Pirates the year after Davies left, but both players are now in the Hall of Fame (although I hadn’t heard of either one). Frank Ramsey and Cliff Hagan were the first Kentucky duo to play at Lexington and make it to the basketball Hall of Fame. They combined for 13,000 points in the 50s and 60s. Bill Russell and K.C. Jones were teammates on the Celtics but also played together at the University of San Francisco. They won two NCAA championships and eight NBA titles together. Billy Cunningham and Larry Brownare better known as coaches, but the pair played for Dean Smith at North Carolina in the late 60s. Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes combined for 20,000 points for the post-Alcindor UCLA Bruins. Patrick Ewing begot the pair of Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo, who are both in the Hall of Fame and combined for 26,000 points. Let’s get to the top 14!
To continue reading this article, click here
