Ivy to the NBA? It's possible

There he was -- Tim Begley, reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, invited to work out on the floor of the Wachovia Center in a Philadelphia 76ers jersey.

It's enough to boost any basketball player's ego.

But when the recent Penn grad stepped off the court on June 20, he showered onlooking reporters with a deluge of modesty when asked about his NBA prospects.

"Hell no, I don't have a legitimate shot," Begley said. "I've got no shot at getting drafted. I've got a buddy in the back getting pictures of me [being] videocamered by about 15 people. I'm here for the opportunity, having a good time."

Begley was right. Sixty names were called in Tuesday night's NBA draft and his wasn't one of them. In fact, not one Ivy League player had his named called.

This does not come as a surprise to those who follow the league.

With tough academic and financial recruiting restrictions, the Ivy League has not seen one of its players picked by an NBA squad since Penn's Jerome Allen was taken 49th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1995.

Only seven of the NCAA's 32 Divison I conferences -- America East, Atlantic Sun, Big South, Metro Atlantic, Mid Eastern, Northeast and Southwestern -- have gone longer than the Ivy League without seeing a player get drafted.

Is this a trend that will continue, or will the Ivy League soon produce another NBA-level talent?

Ed Stefanski, general manager of the New Jersey Nets and former Penn basketball player, thinks that it is only a matter of time before an Ivy basketball player is drafted.

"You'll see someone pop up in the next 10 years," he said. "We're due."

Most people who spoke with The Summer Pennsylvanian were in agreement with Stefanski. Moreover, they all gave a similar description as to how an Ivy League player would make it to basketball's biggest stage.

First, it requires a great college coach.

"It would take a Fran Dunphy," said Armond Hill, of Penn's longtime basketball coach. Hill coached at Columbia prior to his current job as an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics.

"The coach is going to have to convince a young man that there is more to life than just basketball," said the Princeton product who was drafted ninth overall in the 1976 draft.

Dunphy admits, however, that this is easier said than done. He says luck plays a large role in being able to land an NBA prospect.

"We have to get lucky in the recruiting process," he said. "We need to get a guy where it may not have been possible for him to get looked at by a lot of schools."

The Penn coach ? who has seen three of his players go onto the NBA ? says that the next step is to play a challenging schedule.

Rob Jackson, an NBA scout who reports to NBA Director of Scouting Marty Blake, calls evaluating players from minor conferences the "intriguing part of scouting." Still, Jackson ? a former Penn assistant coach under Dunphy's predecessor, Tom Schneider ? admits that roughly 86 percent of the people he is asked to scout are from major conferences. Therefore, he says it is important for players from minor teams to step up when they play squads from these major conferences.

Dunphy says that his players have no problem getting seen by scouts, as Penn plays a handful of major conference opponents each year.

"We have more scouts at our games than you can ever imagine," he said, adding that he expects many scouts to be in attendance next year when Penn takes on Duke, Villanova, Saint Joseph's and Temple.

Stefanski said that even if a team does not play any major conference opponents, a good player will get looked at by an NBA team.

"People have an impression that we look at just the glamour leagues," he said. "We look at every league."

If a small conference player impresses just one scout, 76ers assistant and former Penn head coach Dick Harter insists that others will quickly follow. He cites Vermont big man Taylor Coppenrath as this year's example.

"As many people watched him play as they did someone from a major conference school," Harter said.

Most experts agreed that the next likely step for an Ivy basketball player to get to the NBA would be through the two major predraft camps -- first in Portsmouth, Va., and then in Chicago. The Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, held every April, features players that may have caught the attention of a couple of scouts but are by no means major NBA prospects. In Tuesday's draft, Jason Maxiell, a forward out of Cincinatti, was the only player from Portsmouth selected. The Detroit Pistons took Maxiell in the first round.

Begley and Princeton's Judson Wallace were both invited to Portsmouth this year, with Begley averaging four points per game and Wallace averaging 9.7. Neither was impressive enough to make it to Chicago, but, according to Stefanski, "they didn't embarrass themselves or the League."

Ugonna Onyekwe, a 2003 Penn graduate and the last legitimate pro prospect to come out of the Ivy League, put up good enough numbers in Portsmouth (10.7 points, eight rebounds per game) to get a Chicago invite. Still, he did not get drafted. Why?

According to Stefanski, the biggest problem Onyekwe and other Ivy League players face, is their size. He noted that in the Ancient Eight, most players are "tweeners" -- too small for one position and not athletic enough for another.

"Onyekwe was close, but size was a problem," he said, noting that at 6-foot-8 Onywekwe was too small to play in the post with NBA players who were over seven feet tall.

Jackson, who faced Onyekwe as an assistant coach at Seton Hall, said that an NBA team should have drafted the Penn grad. He disagrees with the NBA convential wisdom that a player can't compete in the post simply because of his size.

"Unfortunately, guys are slotted into positions," Jackson said. "If you are a 4-man, you have to look a certain way. I guess I'm from the old school. With a player, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. To me it's no exact science."

While Onyekwe was known for being simply a good all-around player, Hill and Dunphy both suggested that a more likely way for an Ivy League player will make it to the NBA is by being amazing at just one skill.

Hill cited former Penn basketball player Matt Maloney, who played in the NBA from 1996 to 2001, as someone who caught the attention of many pro teams with his ability to shoot.

"If you can shoot the ball, I don't care how tall you are, I am sure the NBA would want to have you," he said.

Dunphy said that the next Ivy Leaguer in the NBA will likely be "more Bruce Bowen than Manu Ginobli," refering to Bowen's ability to excel on defense.

But just because Ivy players are not regulars to the NBA Draft, does not mean they have no futures in professional basketball.

A handful of players each year go on to play in Europe, which has a more similar style of play to the Ivy League than the NBA.

"I think we got to see in the Olympics last year how certain guys might not be as athletic as certain people, but if you play the game a certain way you're going to win in the long run," Begley said after his 76ers workout. "So I'm excited to go over to Europe and play against guys who are playing at a professional level, getting paid to play basketball and playing in a manner which shows they really appreciate the way the game's supposed to play."

But even a successful year or two in Europe could lead a player back to the attention of NBA scouts.

"There's a misconception that if I play in the States in some pro league, I'll have a better chance of being seen by NBA scouts," Stefanski said. "We have scouts everywhere."

So what would have to change for the Ivy League to send more graduates to the NBA? Everyone said that the financial aid and academic restrictions that make the Ivy League unique from all other conferences would have to be severely relaxed.

Harter also said that the NBA would have to expand its draft past two rounds. The NBA Draft used to have up to 21 rounds, allowing more Ivy players to get drafted. In the 1980s, despite the Ivy League's restrictions and a reduction in the NBA Draft to just 10 rounds, 14 Ancient Eight players were selected.

In 1989, however, the NBA Draft was cut to just two rounds. Since then only Allen and Dartmouth's Walter Palmer have been drafted.

For Begley and other Ivy League graduates, however, life will go on even if the NBA never comes calling.

"I graduated from Wharton," Begley said. "I graduated with a finance degree a couple of weeks ago. I guess that was my shining moment. As awesome as it was getting dressed up in a Sixers uniform and pretending to be somebody important for a couple of hours, my highlight of my last month or two was definitely graduating from the best business school in the world."

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