Four Pac-12 players hear names called during 2023 NBA draft

Pac-12 basketball was a disappointment in the 2022-2023 college basketball season. No teams made the Elite Eight or Final Four. Only four teams reached the NCAA Tournament, and only one made the Sweet 16. The league fell far short of expectations, with Oregon failing to make the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season under Dana Altman, and Stanford continuing to waste talent under coach Jerod Haase.

Given that the conference did not measure up on the basketball court, it’s not a surprise that the Pac-12’s 2023 NBA draft contingent was small, and mostly attached to only one school. UCLA provided three of the four players at this year’s draft, getting Jaime Jaquez, Amari Bailey, and Jaylen Clark into the NBA.

Jaquez went at No. 18 to the Miami Heat, the lone first-round pick for the Pac-12 this year. Mouhamed Gueye of Washington State, the only non-UCLA Pac-12 player taken in the draft, went at No. 39 to the Atlanta Hawks in a trade with the Boston Celtics. Bailey went at No. 41 to the Charlotte Hornets, and Clark went at No. 53 to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

This draft class would have been larger if USC’s Boogie Ellis had turned pro. USC’s five-year run of having a top-50 draft pick came to an end for that reason alone.

Notably, Arizona big man Azuolas Tubelis went undrafted.

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Story originally appeared on Trojans Wire