Several likely 2020 lottery picks, like Obi Toppen, Cole Anthony, and Vernon Carey, were denied an opportunity to experience March Madness before reaching the NBA when the 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled. At least they'll be in good company, joining these 15 NBA superstars who played Division I college basketball but never in the ultimate postseason.
15) Lenny Wilkens, Providence
There wasn't much basketball history at the small, Roman Catholic, liberal arts college of Providence when Wilkens arrived in 1956. His freshman team regularly defeated the varsity squad in scrimmages, and as an upperclassman he lead them to their first ever NIT appearance in 1959, and their first ever AP poll ranking in 1960. Because the NCAA Tournament had just 24 teams back then and the NIT was still arguably just as prestigious a postseason tournament, the Friars returned to the NIT in 1960, where Wilkens earned MVP honors for leading them to the championship game. He was drafted that summer by the St. Louis Hawks and the Providence would soon after make its first NCAA Tournament appearance, in 1964.
14) Joe Dumars, McNeese State
Born and raised in the small town of Natchitoches, LA, Dumars was lightly recruited out of high school and landed at nearby McNeese State. The Cowboys had joined Division I just nine years prior to Dumars' arrival and still lacked the infrastructure to contend. Though he was one of the nation's leading scorers in his junior and senior years, and won Southland Player of the Year in '84-'85, Dumars failed to lead McNeese State into the Big Dance. They lost in the Southland Conference Tournament semifinals all four years he played and didn't possess nearly enough cache to be consdered for an at-large bid. Two years after he graduated and was drafted by the Pistons, Dumars was named as part of a recruiting scandal that landed McNeese State on probation. They quickly recovered and made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1989.
13) Chris Bosh, Georgia Tech
A perennial Final Four contender in the '80s and early '90s, Georgia Tech was in a prolonged slump when Bosh joined the campus in 2002. They had just one NCAA Tournament appearance in the prior six seasons, during which time legendary coach Bobby Cremins had resigned. Things seemed promising in '02-'03 with star freshmen Bosh and Jarrett Jack leading the way, but the Yellow Jackets faced tough ACC competition and had to settle for an NIT appearance after a 14-14 finish. Attending Georgia Tech as a promise to his alumnus aunt, Bosh had initially planned to stay in school for at least a couple years, but opted to declare for NBA draft eligibility after he was named 2nd-Team All-ACC and ACC Rookie of the Year. One year later, with Jack leading the way, the Yellow Jackets made a surprise run to the Final Four, while Bosh was in the midst of an All-Rookie performance with the Raptors.
12) Spencer Haywood, Detroit
With a roster ravaged by injuries, defections, and boycotts, the 1968 U.S. Olympic basketball team still managed to win gold thanks to a stellar performance from Haywood. Having grown up in poverty with limited access to formal education, Haywood couldn't make academic standards at any major school and at the time of the Olympics had just wrapped up his freshman year at Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado. He managed to leverage his Olympic stardom into a scholarship from Detroit Mercy and in '68-'69 averaged 32.1 points and an NCAA-leading 22.1 rebounds per game. But after a strong start and an AP ranking as high as #7, the Titans struggled down the stretch of the regular season and didn't receive an NCAA invitation. That summer, Haywood opted for a one-and-done career at the school to sign a lucrative contract in the ABA.
11) Neil Johnston, Ohio State
A native of Chillicothe, located just 50 miles south of Ohio State's campus, Johnston seemed almost assured of NCAA Tournament success when he joined the Buckeyes in 1946. The program was coming off three consecutive Final Four appearances but legendary coach Harold Olsen, right after recruiting Johnston, made a surprise departure for the Chicago Stags of the newly formed NBA. After two seasons on the court that ended with losing records, Johnston, who also pitched for Ohio State's baseball team, left school to sign a minor league contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. He would eventually return to basketball, landing with the Philadelphia Warriors in 1951 and developing into a three-time NBA scoring champ and six-time All-Star.
10) Kevin Johnson, California
Though heavily recruited by new Arizona coach Lute Olsen in 1983, Johnson instead opted to remain close to his home of Sacramento by playing for California. While Olsen's Wildcats soon started a streak of 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, Johnson failed to break a tourney drought for the Golden Bears that reached 27 years by the time of his graduation. They came close in his senior year, when Johnson set the school records for career points, assists, and steals and led Cal to 20 wins, but they had to settle for an NIT bid after losing in the Pac-10 Tournament semifinals. Three years after Johnson was drafted seventh overall by the Cavaliers, Cal finally returned to the tournament, reaching the second round in 1990 as a #9 seed.
9) George McGinnis, Indiana
A rare Indiana basketball legend whose career includes only individual success at the NCAA level, McGinnis played just one year for the Hoosiers before departing for an ABA contract. That season was '70-'71, the last before Bobby Knight took over and led Indiana to 24 tournament appearances in a 29 year span. McGinnis, already a local hero for earning Mr. Basketball and a state title at George Washington High School in Indianapolis, instead played for coach Lou Watson at Indiana. The Hoosiers got off to a solid start but they dropped some crucial conference games down the stretch and missed out on an NCAA Tournament that was still accepting just one team per conference, despite 30 points and 14.7 rebounds per game from McGinnis, which earned him 1st-Team All-Big 10. He soon took advantage of the lax ABA eligibility rules, leaving school after just one year to sign with the hometown Pacers and kick off a stellar pro career.
8) Bill Sharman, USC
Though his basketball teams at USC failed to find postseason success, Sharman did win the 1948 College World Series as the Trojans' starting first baseman. A two-sport star at Porterville High School in central California, he served in the Navy in World War II for two years before attending college. Though his coach, Sam Barry, would eventually become a legend as the progenitor of the triangle offense (he was also the baseball team's manager, and one of just three coaches to ever reach the Final Four in basketball and College World Series in baseball), USC struggled to contend in Sharman's four years on campus. They almost managed a tournament appearance in his senior season, '49-'50, finishing second in the Pacific Coast Conference (a Pac-10 precursor) behind cross-town rival UCLA, which was in the early stages of the John Wooden dynasty. Sharman's pro career was much more successful, reaching the postseason in 10 straight seasons with the Celtics, winning titles in five of them.
7) Robert Parish, Centenary
6) Kevin McHale, Minnesota
In comparison to their longtime teammate and fellow Celtics legend Larry Bird, who famously led Indiana State to the 1979 Final Four, Parish and McHale had much more modest NCAA careers. Parish's was especially slight, playing for Centenary College, a Methodist school in Louisiana that, at the time, was the smallest Division I school in the NCAA. Parish, who rejected scholarship offers from bigger schools so that he could remain closer to his hometown of Shreveport, essentially put the school on the map with an incredible career that earned him All-American honors in '75-'76. But the Gents were ineligible for the NCAA postseason due to a probation stemming from a dubious violation of the so-called "1.6 rule," which would soon be repealed. Despite the lack of postseason possibilities, Parish still spurned potentially huge contracts in the NBA or ABA to play all four years of college ball, and was the eighth overall pick in the 1976 NBA draft. McHale also made the decision to play college basketball close to home, near the small mining town of Hibbing, MN, where he grew up. Unlike Centenary, Minnesota was a large school with a respectable basketball program, though they had just one NCAA Tournament appearance before McHale's 1976 arrival. They didn't tally another one in his four years on campus, though his freshman year team, which also featured future NBA standouts Ray Williams and Mychal Thompson, won 24 games and would have received an NCAA Tournament at-large bid if the program wasn't on probation for an infraction incurred years earlier under a previous coach. In his senior year, the Golden Gophers fell just short of reaching the NCAA Tournament, instead settling for a run to the NIT finals, where they lost to Ralph Sampson and Virginia.
5) Billy Cunningham, North Carolina
Dean Smith's 36 years coaching North Carolina included 11 Final Four appearances and a streak of 23 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. But his beginnings were less auspicious, with the Tar Heels failing to reach the tournament in his first five seasons at the helm. Smith's biggest star in those early years was Cunningham, who was recruited to the school in 1962 after a star prep career in Brooklyn. He was All-ACC in all three years he played on the varsity team, and left the school as its all-time rebounder, but one thing he couldn't do was lead them to an ACC title and the subsequent NCAA Tournament bid that was tied to it. They lost in the ACC Tournament semifinals in Cunningham's sophomore and junior years, then were upset in the quarterfinals in his senior campaign. That '64-'65 season was such a disappointment that students began to hang an effigy of Smith after some late season losses but the coach soon turned things around. He lead the Tar Heels to the Final Four in 1967, in the same spring that Cunningham won the NBA title with the 76ers.
4) Dominique Wilkins, Georgia
Though he never managed to lead them to the NCAA Tournament in his three seasons suiting up for Georgia, Wilkins deserves some credit for the '82-'83 team that made a surprise run to the Final Four immediately after he left the program. That's because his surprise decision to matriculate at Georgia in 1979, despite playing high school basketball in Washington, North Carolina, just a couple hours away from the Tobacco Road schools, put the program on the map. Most of the players on the 1983 Final Four team were recruited specifically to play with Wilkins, and it was not only the first Final Four appearance in school history, but the first NCAA Tournament bid, period. The "Human Highlight Film" had to settle for NIT trips in his sophomore and junior years before he left school early for the NBA. His Bulldogs came close to the Big Dance in '80-'81, reaching the SEC Tournament finals where they lost a heartbreaker to Mississippi (Wilkins was named tournament MVP in the losing effort).
3) Rick Barry, Miami (FL)
As one of the nation's top recruits, Barry stunned many when he chose Miami in 1960. The program was relatively young and had little success, making the NCAA Tournament for the first time just one year prior. But Barry, who was born and raised in New Jersey, was sold on the warm weather of Florida, the prospect of traveling around the country with an independent team, and the charms of coach Bruce Hale (he was also soon charmed by Hale's daughter, Pam, whom Barry eventually married). In Barry's sophomore and junior seasons, the Hurricanes won over 20 games and participated in the NIT, but in his senior year, when he won the NCAA scoring title with 37.4 points per game, Miami was not eligible for any postseason tournament due to a recruiting violation. Barry and Hale would eventually reunite as the respective star player and coach of the Oakland Oaks in the ABA, while the Miami basketball program would soon find itself financially insolvable, leading to a dissolution in 1971 that lasted for 14 years.
2) John Stockton, Gonzaga
One of just four schools, along with Kansas, Duke, and Michigan State, to appear in every NCAA Tournament in the 21st century, Gonzaga was instead a program with no past success and no foreseeable future when Stockton arrived in 1980. Not that his other options were much better, as the Spokane native was really only recruited by Idaho and Montana in addition to Gonzaga, where his grandfather had been a football star in the '20s (the football program was eventually discontinued during World War II and never revived). The West Coast Conference didn't have a tournament yet, so the regular season champion was granted the automatic NCAA Tournament bid. Gonzaga came closest in Stockton's freshman season, when he was lightly used off the bench, finishing in third place, but ended up a distant fourth in the conference in his final three seasons, never finishing above .500 in the standings. Stockton did earn WCC Player of the Year honors in '83-'84 before moving on to the NBA. His Utah Jazz teams reached the NBA playoffs in all 19 seasons he played, including back-to-back NBA Finals berths in 1997 and 1998. Gonzaga eventually made its NCAA Tournament debut in 1995 and has now appeared in 21 consecutive tournaments and counting, including four with John's son, David, on the roster.
1) Julius Erving, Massachussets
In his two years on campus, Erving averaged 26.3 points per game while leading UMass to back-to-back titles in the now defunct Yankee Conference. But the NCAA Tournament was still limited to just 24 teams and the Yankee champion did not receive an automatic bid, so Massachusetts was relegated to the NIT each time. This being the final era where the NIT could almost compete with the NCAA Tournament in terms of attracted talent (especially East Coast teams), the Minutemen had a tough couple of draws, losing in the first round to a top 10 team that was the eventual tournament champion (Marquette in 1970 and North Carolina in 1971). Perhaps frustrated by the still standing ban on dunks in the NCAA, Erving opted to forgo his senior year at Amherst to enter the ABA draft under its "hardship" rule, but did eventually earn his degree from the university years later and was later bestowed an honorary doctorate, a befitting honorific for the man already known as "Dr. J."