The first round of the 2024 NBA draft has come and gone.
A total of 30 selections were made Wednesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, as the NBA draft debuted a two-day format.
Among those 30 NBA draft picks were a pair of Kentucky Wildcats, and four total players who previously played in the Southeastern Conference.
Here are the former SEC basketball stars who were selected in the first round of the 2024 NBA draft:
Players are listed in order of draft selection.
The first former SEC basketball player taken in the 2024 draft was a familiar name to just about anybody with ties to the commonwealth.
Reed Sheppard, the son of former UK basketball greats Jeff Sheppard and Stacey Reed Sheppard, went from in-state star at North Laurel High School to college star at UK and now the No. 3 overall pick by the Houston Rockets.
Sheppard, who averaged 12.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game during his lone college season at Kentucky, is now one of a handful of Kentucky natives to be selected in the first round of an NBA draft.
The next former SEC basketball star off the board in the 2024 draft was another ex-Cat.
Rob Dillingham — who, like Sheppard, was a one-and-done Kentucky backcourt star last season — was taken No. 8 overall on Wednesday night by the San Antonio Spurs, before being part of a trade that will see Dillingham go to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Dilingham and Sheppard formed a dynamic, off-the-bench tandem for the Wildcats last season: Dillingham averaged 15.2 points — second on John Calipari’s final Kentucky team behind fifth-year senior Antonio Reeves — and 3.9 assists (second behind Sheppard) while playing 23.3 minutes and making one start in 32 games.
Now, Dillingham will go to Minnesota and join another former SEC one-and-done star: Anthony Edwards, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft out of Georgia.
The first non-Kentucky former SEC player selected in the 2024 draft was Devin Carter, who only spent one of his three college seasons playing in the league.
Carter, a 6-foot-2 guard who began his college career at South Carolina, was selected with the No. 13 overall pick by the Sacramento Kings.
Carter only spent the 2021-22 season with the Gamecocks before transferring and playing the next two college seasons at Providence.
In Carter’s lone SEC season, he made seven starts and played in 30 games for a South Carolina team that went 18-13 overall and 9-9 in league games. This was the 10th and final South Carolina team coached by Frank Martin, who was fired and replaced by current South Carolina coach Lamont Paris.
Carter averaged 9.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists during his one season at South Carolina.
Carter ended up playing for two head coaches during his two seasons at Providence: Ed Cooley in the 2022-23 season and Kim English for 2023-24.
Carter started all 33 games that he played in each of the last two seasons for the Friars. He averaged 13 points and 4.9 rebounds per game during the 2022-23 season, before significantly boosting his production this past season.
Carter averaged nearly 20 points and nine rebounds per game last season for a Providence team that went 21-14 overall. Carter was the Big East Player of the Year for the 2023-24 season.
Former Tennessee Volunteer Dalton Knecht was one of the best players in college basketball last season, and he now has a star-studded home in the NBA.
Knecht — a 6-foot-5 guard who played two seasons of junior college basketball, two seasons at Northern Colorado and last season at Tennessee — was selected with the No. 17 overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Knecht was a First-Team AP All-American last season and the SEC Player of the Year with the Volunteers.
His gaudy stat totals included averaging nearly 22 points and five rebounds per game while shooting 39.7% from 3-point range.
Knecht started all 36 games last season for a Tennessee team that reached the Elite Eight. Knecht went for 40 points against UK in both teams’ regular-season finale, a game the Wildcats won in Knoxville.
That ended up being the final win of the John Calipari era at UK.
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