After nine consecutive years without a Pitt player’s name being called in the NBA Draft, the drought ended Wednesday night.
Guard Bub Carrington, who played only one season at Pitt, was drafted 14th overall in the first round by the Washington Wizards, who acquired the selection in a Wednesday night trade with the Portland Trail Blazers. He is the first player drafted by the NBA directly from Pitt since 2014. In that draft, Lamar Patterson was picked in the second round (48th overall) by the Milwaukee Bucks and traded to the Atlanta Hawks.
The moment all the hard work pays off ????@Pitt_MBB | #NBADraft pic.twitter.com/I1BNWAe4Dk
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) June 27, 2024
Carrington, a Baltimore native, is the ninth all-time Pitt player chosen in the first round, the first under coach Jeff Capel and the first since 2013 when center Steven Adams went 12th overall to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Cam Johnson, who started his career at Pitt and finished it at North Carolina, was a 2019 first-round choice (11th overall) of the Minnesota Timberwolves before he was traded to the Phoenix Suns.
Pitt has had at least one player drafted in every decade since 1954 when Clarence “Dutch” Burch went in the fifth round (40th overall) to the Fort Wayne Pistons.
ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas gave Carrington a simple compliment Wednesday night during the network’s telecast of the draft.
“He just knows how to play,” Bilas said. “Carlton Carrington is a scorer. He’s versatile as a guard, but he can create his own. He can do it in the mid-range. He can do it from deep. He’s got a very good feel in pick-and-roll situations and making reads. He’s a very good guard rebounder. He’s got a very good dribble pull-up game, and he can shoot it off the catch. A good passer, as well.
“I thought he played his best toward the end of the season, especially in the ACC Tournament when Pittsburgh was making a push for the NCAA Tournament.”
Bilas then gave a shoutout to the Panthers, adding, “I thought they should have gotten in.”
Carrington scored 24 points in Pitt’s loss to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament semifinals, his final game as a collegian.
Carrington said being selected by the Wizards, the franchise closest to his Baltimore home, was an additional bonus to the start of his professional career.
“It means a lot to see the stuff that I’ve done come to light,” he told reporters at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., shortly after his name was called.
He said he expects to hear from his second cousin, Rudy Gay, who went to high school in Maryland before embarking on a 17-year NBA career.
“He’ll probably say he’ll be at the first game and don’t suck,” Carrington said.
He said he expects a significant adjustment to the NBA, beyond the increased athleticism he’ll confront from teammates and opponents.
“The biggest adjustment would be how they game-plan,” he said. “It’s real strategic in the league, and I’m starting to see a little bit of that, working out for all these different teams.
“They have a real strategy going into every single game. If you don’t execute, you can’t play. That will be something I’ll have to get adjusted to.”
Carrington and Blake Hinson, who is also eligible to be selected in this draft that concludes Thursday, were Pitt’s leading scorers last season with respective averages of 13.8 and 18.5 points per game. Combined, Carrington (65) and Hinson (110) recorded 175 3-pointers while leading Pitt to a 22-11 record.
Aside from his scoring average that was 20th in the ACC, the 6-foot-3 Carrington shot 41.2% from the field (159 of 386), 32.2% from beyond the 3-point arc (65 of 202) and 78.5% from the foul line (73 of 93). He averaged 5.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists and was the only freshman in the nation to hit those marks with at least a 13.5-point scoring average.
The loss of Carrington is a significant one for the Panthers after starting center Federiko Federiko and reserve forward William Jeffress entered the transfer portal. Capel began retooling the roster at the same time Carrington declared for the draft in April, and he subsequently secured graduate student Damian Dunn, a 6-5, 205-pound guard who started his career at Temple in 2019 and played last season at Houston. Dunn will join a backcourt that includes holdovers Jaland Lowe and Ishmael Leggett and incoming freshman Brandin Cummings of Lincoln Park.
After the departure of starters Carrington, Hinson and Federiko, Pitt also signed 6-10 forward Cameron Corhen from Florida State and international guard Amsal Delalic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
