UConn’s Newton and Spencer are taken in the second round of the NBA Draft
The 2024 NBA Draft will go down as one of the most memorable in UConn basketball history.
With Tristen Newton and Cam Spencer being selected in Thursday’s second round, the Huskies had four of their five starters from last season’s national championship team drafted. The total is the second most for the Huskies, just behind the five-member class in 2006.
During Thursday’s second round in New York, Newton went to Indiana at No. 49 overall while Spencer was picked 53rd, landing with Memphis.
Teammates Stephon Castle and Donovan Clingan were lottery pick selections during Wednesday’s first round at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Castle was selected fourth by San Antonio and Clingan seventh by Portland.
Coach Dan Hurley and his coaching staff helped develop all four players into future pros. He’s had eight players drafted in his six seasons in Storrs and a program-record tying six in a two-year span.
Castle was on the fast track to the NBA coming out of high school and continued to grow his game to an elite level in his one season. Clingan put in the hard work to become an attractive top 10 draft prospect during his sophomore season. Newton and Spencer went from overlooked during the high school recruiting process to second round picks.
“It shows that we can take a top 10 player and help him even improve his stock in Steph…,” Hurley said Wednesday. “Then we also can take players that maybe weren’t considered early entry players and sit here in the lottery with them and win championships together. We’re showing we can do player development with all different types.”
Newton watched the second round with his family back home in El Paso, Texas.
His pre-NBA Draft workout tour made over a dozen stops, including Indiana on June 18.
“I can contribute to the game in so many ways,” Newton said during his visit there. “It’s not just one thing I can do, it’s not just like I have to go out there and score. I can play defense, I can get assists, rebounds, steals, I can do pretty much everything on the court. So I feel like being versatile and not one-dimensional will help me a lot.”
Newton, a 6-foot-5 point guard, backed up that statement during his two years at UConn after starting his college career at East Carolina.
He helped the Huskies capture back-to-back national championships. He earned All-American and All-Big East first team honors while averaging a team-best 15.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists last season. He also won the Bob Cousy Award for the nation’s top point guard and was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player in April.
Spencer, a 6-4 guard from Davidsonville, Md., made a big impact in his one season in Storrs after transferring from Rutgers. He was the team’s top 3-point weapon, shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc. He averaged 14.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and a team-high 59 steals overall.
Hurley hoped that NBA teams would value his two guards’ contributions to a winning program. Indiana and Memphis certainly did.
“Who wouldn’t want one of those guys in your organization as a potential guy that’s playing for you in your rotation or somebody that you’re developing over a year or two,” Hurley said. “They’ve proven that they’re outstanding all-around guards that can do everything and then they’re also champions.”
Eight Big East players were drafted overall, the most for the league since 2012.
g.keefe@theday.com
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