Dalton Knecht moving on from the Vols to the Lakers

A basketball profession that started in Colorado at Prairie View Excessive Faculty and at Northeastern Junior Faculty close to the Nebraska border will proceed with the famed Los Angeles Lakers.

Dalton Knecht, who not too long ago turned the most important single-season success story in Tennessee males’s basketball historical past, was tabbed by the Lakers with the seventeenth general choice in Wednesday evening’s NBA draft. The 6-foot-6, 212-pounder is the highest-drafted Volunteers participant since Marcus Haislip went thirteenth to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2002.

“It is a dream come true and a once-in-a-lifetime alternative,” Knecht stated on the ESPN telecast. “It is only a blessing. That is all I can say. I am perplexed, and I am able to get to work.”

After spending two years in junior school, Knecht performed two seasons at Northern Colorado within the Huge Sky Convention, averaging 20.2 factors per recreation through the 2022-23 season. He then went to Knoxville and instantly flourished, averaging 21.7 factors a recreation final season on his solution to being chosen as Southeastern Convention participant of the 12 months.

With Knecht main the best way, the Vols posted a 27-9 file that included the SEC regular-season championship and a run to the NCAA event’s Elite Eight.

“He is the Roy Hobbs of faculty basketball,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas stated, referencing “The Pure” ebook and film. “He got here out of nowhere to be a first-team All-American.”

Knecht had been projected by a number of retailers as a top-10 decide. One other ESPN analyst, Jonathan Givony, stated on the printed that some NBA normal managers had been extra all for drafting youngsters and their potential upside in comparison with the extra confirmed Knecht, who’s 23 years outdated.

The 21.7-point clip positioned Knecht with solely Bernard King (25.8), Ernie Grunfeld (22.3) and Allan Houston (21.9) so far as gamers who averaged greater than 20 factors throughout their time with the Vols. He’s the one Tennessee participant to attain 30 or extra factors in 5 consecutive contests.

Contact David Paschall at [email protected].