Villanova, which has in recent years been an early tournament flameout, had a magical run through the NCAA Tournament Championship this year shooting 58% throughout the entirety of the tournament to win it’s second ever national title.
Most years the team that wins the championship has plenty of NBA talent to boast on their roster who will be drafted that year or in upcoming drafts.
This will only be the 2nd time since 1997 that a tournament champion will more than likely have nobody selected in that year’s NBA Draft.
The only other time it happened was in 2006 when Florida won the national title and Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer all came back and won the title again in 2007.
Here are the players drafted from a national champion team in college basketball every year since 1997:
2015 Duke: Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones
2014 Uconn: Shabazz Napier, DeAndre Daniels
2013 Louisville: Gorgui Dieng, Peyton Siva
2012 Kentucky: Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrance Jones, Doron Lamb, Darius Miller
2011 Uconn: Kemba Walker
2010 Duke: Kyle Singler
2009 North Carolina: Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green
2008 Kansas: Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur, Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun
2007 Florida: Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Taurean Green
2005 North Carolina: Marvin Williams, Raymond Felton, Sean May, Rashad McCants
2004 Uconn: Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon
2003 Syracuse: Carmelo Anthony
2002 Maryland: Chris Wilcox, Juan Dixon, Lonny Baxter
2001 Duke: Shane Battier
2000 Michigan State: Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson
1999 Uconn: Richard Hamilton
1998 Kentucky: Nazr Mohammed
If no player that played for this national champion Villanova team ends up getting drafted in the top 40 of an NBA Draft it will be the first time that has ever happened.
On the current roster the only players who have this potential are freshman guard Jalen Brunson in a few years and sophomore forward Josh Hart who could be a 2nd round pick next year.
In most seasons you would expect to see high level lottery picks like Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram or Buddy Hield winning and competing for titles but 2016 was the rare year where the champions overcame the odds and lack of potential pro talent to take home college basketball’s biggest prize.
