Calipari sees streak of first-rounders broken with no Razorback picked

No NBA team picked Arkansas' Adou Thiero will have to wait awhile to hear his name called after not hearing his name called in the first round of the NBA Draft in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.

He is lookig to be the first Razorback to be drafted since Anthony Black and Nick Smith Jr. were both taken in the first round in 2023 under coach Eric Musselman.

Thiero would also the second player in his family to be drafted. His mother, Mariam Sy, was drafted No. 33 overall in the 2006 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics.

On the ESPN Best Available list at the end of the first round Thiero was one of the top three or four picks left. He should go quickly in the second round that starts at 7 p.m. on ESPN on Thursday evening.

Maybe the biggest story, though, is it ends a John Calipari streak that dates back to his time at Kentucky. For the past 17 years, Calipari has had at least one player under his tutelage hear his name called in the first round.

The streak dates back to Derrick Rose in 2008 and across his tenure at Kentucky, he had 37 first-round picks including the likes of No. 1 picks John Wall and Anthony Davis. He's also had plenty of other NBA stars in Julius Randle, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Since the turn of the millenium, the Hogs have sent 13 players to the NBA via the draft. If Theiro is selected, the Razorbacks will have had a player drafted in six of the past seven seasons after going through an 8-year stretch from 2010-18 in which only one player was drafted (Bobby Portis).

Thiero played three seasons under Calipari with the first two with the Wildcats before making the switch and transferring to Arkansas with his coach.

Thiero appeared in 27 games and started the first 26, averaging 15.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in his lone season with the Razorbacks, leading the team in both categories. At 54.5%, he also finished second in the SEC in field goal percentage.

He got much more runway in his third season under Calipari on a team that used just eight rotation players. In his first two seasons at Kentucky, he averaged just 2.3 and 7.2 points per game respectively.