Olympic hoops is college hoops

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Good morning! We’ve got more Olympic men’s basketball today (in fact, Canada vs. Australia just tipped). Team USA is back in action on Wednesday. With just those three teams, 20 former college basketball players will be on the court.

If that seems like a lot, well, that’s because it is. I’ll break out the lists of every college program with someone in the Olympics so you have a secondary team (after Team USA) to cheer for this summer.

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1. Olympic hoops is a college hoops showcase

Locked into men’s hoops at the Olympics? Odds are you’re watching a Kentucky player. Or someone else who played college hoops.

There are seven former Wildcats playing for various countries, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray and Trey Lyles for Canada, Wenyen Gabriel for South Sudan, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis and Devin Booker for Team USA,

That’s the most from any college program, but those are hardly the only former college basketball players playing in Paris. Per Mike DeCourcy, half of the 144 players on the 12 teams (in 5×5) played college hoops (with one coming next season at Duke).

Oddly enough, all of Canada’s roster — not Team USA — played college hoops, while the U.S., Puerto Rico and South Sudan are loaded with former players.

Only Brazil and France don’t have any former college players on the roster.

But most of that focuses on the teams playing in the Olympics. What about the other college programs and their Olympic output? More than 40 programs have former players in the Games.

Here’s the list, which is quite the document because it only hits on former D-I players. There are more who played D-II, D-III and JUCO:

• Arizona: Josh Green (Australia)

• Arizona State: Lu Dort (Canada)

• Auburn: JT Thor (South Sudan)

• Baylor: Nuni Omot (South Sudan)

• Central Arkansas: Jordan Howard (Puerto Rico)

• Colorado: Derrick White (USA)

• Columbia: Maodo Lo (Germany)

• Connecticut: Niles Giffey (Germany)

• Davidson: Steph Curry (USA)

• Duke: RJ Barrett (Canada), Jayson Tatum (USA)

• Florida: Nick Calathes (Greece)

• George Washington: Yuta Watanaba (Japan)

• Georgia: Anthony Edwards (USA)

• Georgia Tech: Jose Alvarado (Puerto Rico)

• Hawai’i: Akira Jacobs (Japan)

• Iowa: Peter Jok (South Sudan)

• Iowa State: George Conditt IV (Puerto Rico), Melvin Ejim (Canada), Tyrese Haliburton (USA), Nick Weiler-Babb (Germany)

• Kansas: Joel Embiid (USA)

• Kent State: Christopher Ortiz (Puerto Rico)

• Loyola (Mary.): Santi Aldama (Spain)

• Louisiana-Monroe: Majok Deng (South Sudan)

• LSU: Duop Reath (Australia), Tremont Walters (Puerto Rico)

• Miami : Davon Reed (Puerto Rico)

• Michigan: Franz Wagner, Mo Wagner (Germany)

• Nebraska: Jack McVeigh (Australia), Keisei Tominaga (Japan)

• NC State: Lorenzo Brown (Spain)

• Oregon: Dillon Brooks (Canada)

• Oregon State: Stevie Thompson (Puerto Rico)

• Saint Mary’s: Matthew Dellavedova, Jock Landale, Patty Mills (All Aussies)

• Stanford: Dwight Powell (Canada), Oscar da Silva (Germany)

• Stephen F. Austin: Thomas Walkup (Greece)

• Tennessee: Uros Plavsic (Serbia)

• Texas: Kevin Durant (USA)

• Tulsa: Will Magnay (Australia)

• UCLA: Jrue Holiday (USA)

• UNC Wilmington: Kai Toews (Japan)

• Wake Forest: Dinos Mitoglou (Greece)

• Washington State: Josh Hawkinson (Japan)

• Wisconsin: Aleem Ford (Puerto Rico)

• Virginia Tech: Nickeil Alexander-Walker (Canada)

The players who played for two schools:

• Canada’s Khem Birch (Pitt and UNLV)

• Japan’s Hugh Watanabe (Portland and UC Davis)

• Puerto Rico’s Isaiah Pineiro (Portland State and San Diego) and Arnaldo Toro (George Washington and St. John’s)

• South Sudan’s Carlik Jones (Radford and Louisville), Bul Kuol (Cal Baptist and Detroit Mercy), Marial Shayok (Virginia and Iowa State)

Shouts to Iowa State, which isn’t far behind Kentucky with former players. Also, props to Mark Few’s Gonzaga program, which has five former players in Paris.

The Zags’ international pipeline was the secret sauce here. Nobody plays for Team USA, but with four players on three other 5×5 teams (and a couple 3×3 teams), it’s quite the spattering of Bulldogs around the Games. All of that is just one reason why Team USA loves having Mark Few on staff.

(Also fun: in that DeCourcy article, he ranks the best former college players in the Olympics.)

2. Ohio State’s preferred walk-on is a doozy

It was only a matter of time before NIL enabled a program to add more than its limit of scholarship players.

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