Miami Hurricanes one of four schools with multiple picks in NBA/NFL Drafts

The Miami Hurricanes are just one of four schools with multiple picks in the NFL and NBA Drafts. Miami had the most players drafted combined of the four schools. Former ACC school Maryland, UCLA and USC were the other three schools with multiple picks in each draft.

The Miami Hurricanes had six players selected in the NFL Draft and two in the NBA Draft. UCLA had five and two, USC four and two and Maryland had two each.

This year was the first time since 1970 and only third time in the history of Miami Hurricanes basketball that two players were selected in the same NBA Draft. Former Miami guards Lonnie Walker and Bruce Brown were both drafted. Walker went 18th overall to San Antonio. Brown was selected 42nd overall by Detroit.

Walker was the highest player selected in the NBA Draft from the four schools mentioned. He was also Miami’s highest drafted player since Shane Larkin went 18th overall in 2013. Walker was just the fifth first-round pick in the history of Miami Hurricanes basketball.

Maryland’s Kevin Huerter was selected by the Atlanta Hawks one pick after Walker. UCLA’s Aaron Holiday was selected by 23rd overall by the Indiana Pacers. USC did not have a player selected in the first round.

The first player selected from USC was DeAnthony Melton who was selected 46th overall by the Houston Rockets. Melton sat out last season after being implicated in the Adidas scandal. The other Trojan picked in the draft was center Chimezie Metu who coincidentally went 49th overall to San Antonio.

Maryland’s other draftee was forward Justin Jackson who went 43rd to the Denver Nuggets. Jackson was traded to Orlando. The other draftee from UCLA was center Thomas Welsh. He was selected 58th overall by the Nuggets.

Maryland’s highest selection in the NFL Draft was wide receiver, D.J. Moore. He went 24th overall to the Carolina Panthers.

UCLA had two first round picks in the NFL Draft. Quarterback Josh Rosen went 10th overall to the Arizona Cardinals. Tackle Kolton Miller was selected 15th by the Oakland Raiders.

USC quarterback Sam Darnold was the highest drafted by any of the four schools in either draft. Darnold went third overall in the NFL Draft to the New York Jets. USC running back Ronald Jones was a relatively high draft choice. He was selected with the sixth pick in the second round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Miami’s highest NFL Draft pick this year was defensive end Chad Thomas. He was the third pick of the third round by Cleveland. Thomas missed the Browns minicamp with a sports hernia injury. He is expected back for training camp next month.

This was the first year since 2014 that no Miami Hurricanes were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft. The six Miami players selected were also down from last season’s nine.

Only two Miami players were chosen in the 2016 NFL Draft. One of those was cornerback Artie Burns who was a first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Next: Jim Larranaga says success in NBA Draft will help recruiting

With Mark Richt running the Miami Hurricanes football program they should have significantly more than two players selected in the NFL Draft for the foreseeable future.