Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Where did NBA Playoff players go to College?

After watching some of the NBA playoff games over the last month or so it got me wondering what college programs have produced the most NBA contributors.  Just off of the top of my head I assume that Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina would be the most represented.  Also, if I had to guess I would say that the Big East is the conference with the most players followed by the Big Ten and ACC. 

To test my theory, I just looked at the 16 playoff teams.  In order to be considered a contributor by the "Prokop definition" you need to average at least 10 minutes per game in the playoffs.  Here are my findings...

Colleges with the most NBA playoff contributor's:
1. Duke 8
2. Kansas 6
    UCLA 6
4. North Carolina 5
    Arizona 5
6. Florida 4
    Kentucky 4
8. Georgia Tech 3
    Michigan St 3
    Ohio St 3
    Pittsburgh 3
    Stanford 3
    UCONN 3
    Wake Forest 3

Not too much of a surprise that Duke is number 1.  I was surprised by the absence of some powerhouse college teams like: Syracuse, Texas, and Georgetown.  Even more surprising is that Wisconsin, Louisville, Villanova and Illiniois don't have one single playoff contributor. 

Now let's look at the breakdown by conference:
1. ACC 24
2. Pac 10 20
3. Mid-Major Conferences 18
    Foreign Players (No College) 18
5. Big East 15
6. SEC 14
7. High School Players (No College) 12
8. Big Twelve 11
9. Big Ten 9

The ACC has a huge lead in this category.  Surprisingly the Big East (with 16 teams) has only 15 playoff contributor's and the Big Ten just 9.  You can combine those two leagues, which were the top leagues in the 2010-2011 season, and you just equal the ACC.  Also note that there are 18 Foreign players and 12 high school players that did not attend college contributing in the NBA playoffs.  

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