How current Portland Trail Blazers fared in the NCAA Tournament
Never made the tournament
Most of the NBA’s player pool hails from the college ranks. In their heydays, a lot of those players led – or were a major part of – their schools fighting through a tough season to finally reach tournament glory.
Unfortunately, not everyone had that opportunity. Starting center Jusuf Nurkic and 10-day big Georgios Papagiannis did not play college basketball. Instead, they developed in their respective homelands before declaring for the NBA Draft.
Meanwhile, star point guard Damian Lillard and swingman Maurice Harkless simply played for programs that were left on the outside looking in.
Maurice Harkless
Maurice Harkless played a single season of college hoops, spending the 2011-12 campaign with the St. John’s Red Storm in his native Queens, N.Y. He was a forward in an all-freshman starting lineup.
Harkless averaged 15.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, appearing and starting in all 32 games. That production earned him Big East Rookie of the Year honors. However, the team’s youth was ultimately an impediment. The Red Storm went 13-19 overall and 6-12 in Big East play.
Instead of spending that March in the tournament, Harkless declared for the NBA Draft.
Damian Lillard
Damian Lillard also failed to make the NCAA Tournament in four seasons with the Weber State Wildcats. The two-time Big Sky Conference Player of the Year played for two Big Sky regular season title teams in 2009 and 2010, his freshman and sophomore years, respectively.
However, in a small, one-bid league, it’s the conference tournament that matters. The Portland State Vikings and Montana Grizzlies took home the hardware in those seasons.
Lillard’s junior year was derailed 10 games in by a foot injury. But he returned in 2011-12 playing his best basketball as a collegian. Lillard averaged 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in his final year in Ogden, leading the Wildcats to second place in the Big Sky.
Weber State made it to the conference championship game, a road matchup against top-seeded Montana. Lillard dropped 29 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in that game. Unfortunately, the Wildcats still fell short, 85-66. The future three-time NBA All-Star had been shut out of the NCAA Tournament.