By Mo Mooncey

Last night was the conclusion of March Madness, some of the best and brightest young talents gave their all and the annual tournament concluded with the Villanova University beating the University of North Carolina last night 77-74 in a thrilling game which went down to the wire.

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All eyes now turn to which college basketball players will be drafted into the NBA this June. None of the top big-name prospects such as Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingham were featured in the Wildcats victory over the Tar Heels, which begs the question, does Final Four success impact NBA performance?

Only 43 players have ever been able to achieve the feat of winning both an NCAA championship as well as an NBA title, of them, 6 are currently active in the NBA. 

Historically success at the college level led to success in the pro's. The Boston Celtics teams that won 11 championships between 1957 and 1969 featured 8 players who had won the collegiate tournament including Bill Russell, Larry Siegfried, John Havlicek and Bob Cousy.


Of course not all teams were lucky enough to be as successful as the dominant Celtics and following the end of Boston's reign at the top of the league, winning both NCAA and NBA championships started to become a feat only achieved by the best players. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy and Michael Jordan all picked up both accolades.



All of these players played major parts in winning championships for their respective NBA franchises; however in recent years this has not been the case. When you analyse the currently active players who have won both the March Madness tournament as well as the Larry O'Brien trophy, you realise that college success does not mean you will have a dominating impact on the professional league. 

Nazr Mohammed won two NCAA national titles in 1996 and 1998 with the Kentucky Wildcats. As a journeyman in the NBA, he won a championship ring as a backup for the San Antonio Spurs in 2005.

Jason Terry spent 4 years at the University of Arizona, leading them to a championship in 1997. Terry picked up the NBA sixth man of the year award in 2009 before winning a championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 in that same bench role.



Terry's Dallas teammate Corey Brewer was part of the University of Florida’s successful mid-2000s teams, helping the Gators to the 2006 and 2007 NCAA championships. Despite being the the 2007 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding player, Brewer has been a rotation player for most of his NBA career on various teams.

Mario Chalmers is a two time NBA champion however both of those titles can be attributed the to greatness of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and a lot of luck. His biggest success was during the 2008 NCAA championship game against Derrick Rose's Memphis Tigers where he hit a clutch 3-pointer to send the game to overtime where the Kansas Jayhawks won the title.




Danny Green played four years at the University of North Carolina. In 2009 during his senior season he won the NCAA national championship however struggled initially in the pre league. Drafted by the Cavaliers, he didn’t immediately find success as a pro; he bounced between the D-League and Europe before finally carving a niche for himself in San Antonio as a 3-point shooter. Green has since been to two NBA finals with the Spurs, winning the 2014 title.

Marreese Speights was part of the previously mentioned 2007 NCAA championship winning Florida Gators team. He came off the bench for the Golden State Warriors during their 2015 NBA championship run; as did former Kansas Jayhawk Brandon Rush who won an NCAA championship in 2008.

As you can see from the above list, an NCAA champion has not led an NBA team to a title since Michael Jordan in 1998; so Simmons, Ingham, and Buddy Hield should not worry about crashing out of the tournament as this has no impact on success at the professional level. 
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