Lehigh's McCollum Picked by Portland in NBA Draft

A night without baskets, rebounds or steals may have been the most historic in the history of Lehigh University basketball on Thursday.

Mountain Hawks star point guard C.J. McCollum was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers as the 10th pick in the NBA Draft.

It was the first time ever that a Lehigh player was selected and only the second time that a player from the Patriot League was picked.

It also meant quite a lot to McCollum, who said in a televised post-pick interview on ESPN that he had “come a long way” and “started from the bottom.”

“It just shows what God can do. If you work hard, have faith in your abilities, anything is possible," he said.

Fans of Lehigh basketball—many of who traveled from Bethlehem to Brooklyn and the Barclay’s Center to watch history unfold in person—were jubilant.

“Feels like we beat Bucknell, Duke and Lafayette all in the same night,” tweeted one Mountain Hawks enthusiast who has a Twitter handle of @AsaPackersGhost, for the university’s founder. “Asa is pleased.”

Bucknell and Lafayette, of course, are bitter Patriot League rivals. But the Lehigh victory over perennial powerhouse Duke in March 2012 in the second round of the NCAA tournament is legendary and probably had much to do with what unfolded Thursday.

McCollum scored 30 points on a national stage leading Lehigh to a 75-70 victory over the vaunted Blue Devils—prompting no less an authority than Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski to say that the Mountain Hawk guard was the best player on the floor that night.

At the top of the world after that victory, McCollum was considered a potential NBA draft pick a year ago, after his junior year. Instead, McCollum opted to come back to Lehigh for his senior year, announcing his decision in a column the journalism major wrote himself for Sports Illustrated.

But in January, in the middle of a season in which he was leading the nation in scoring, McCollum broke his left foot in a game against Virginia Commonwealth, ending his college career in disappointing fashion.

There were then obvious questions about how that injury might affect McCollum’s draft potential. But as draft time approached, most experts seemed to agree that McCollum would still be selected as a high first-round pick.

ESPN expert Jay Bilas had McCollum ranked as the eighth best player on the board as the draft got under way this evening.

“Hopefully, I can put Lehigh on the map,” McCollum tweeted before the draft got under way. “Like an actual map. We’ve been trying to get on a map for years.”

In Portland, McCollum joins reigning NBA rookie of the year Damian Lillard, who was himself a guard drafted in the first round out of a so-called mid-major school—Weber State.

"It's a good opportunity,” McCollum said in the ESPN interview. “Dame is a good guy. He's laid the path for not only myself but a lot of mid-major guys out there. We'll definitely be a dynamic backcourt whether we play together, or whatever the team decides to do."

This Sports Illustrated analysis projects that McCollum could play alongside Lillard in the Trail Blazers backcourt sometimes, but most likely will be his backup.

The only other Patriot League player ever selected was Colgate University center Adonal Foyle, who was picked eighth in the 1997 NBA Draft and went on to play for more than a decade for the Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies.

“So happy for @CJMcCollum” tweeted Lehigh Coach Brett Reed. “Lifelong dream come true.”