Saunders Named Top-50 National Player

Senior Wesley Saunders will enter the 2014-2015 men’s basketball season with higher expectations than ever.

The defending Ivy League Player of the Year was named the 34th-best player in the nation by USA Today’s Jason McIntyre this summer, directly behind Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison and Gonzaga’s Kevin Pangos. Saunders averaged 14.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists for the Crimson last year while serving as the team’s best wing defender.

A year after two of his former teammates—Kyle Casey ’13-’14 and Brandyn Curry ’13-’14—signed with European professional basketball teams, McIntyre opines that Saunders may have a chance to make the NBA. He wrote that the senior from Windward High School will “get a long look as a pro next year” and suggests he might be a second round pick.

Per RealGM.com, Saunders would be the first Crimson player drafted since 1987, when Keith Webster was drafted in the seventh round. The NBA shifted to a two-round draft in 1989, so if Saunders were drafted at all it would make him the highest draft pick in Crimson history—a record currently held by 1973 fourth-round draft pick James Brown.

USA Today did not rank the Crimson among the top 25 preseason teams, however.