Recap: Six Big Ten products picked in NBA Draft

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Headlined by the selection of the Big Ten Player of the Year with the final pick in the lottery, six Big Ten players were selected in Thursday night's NBA Draft.

Denzel Valentine, who led Michigan State to a Big Ten Tournament championship in his senior year with the Spartans, went to the Bulls with the 14th pick, the highest Spartan selected since Jason Richardson was a top-five pick in 2001. Valentine was the fifth Michigan State product picked in the last five years and the third first-round pick in the last three years.

Surprisingly, Michigan guard Caris LeVert was the next Big Ten'er off the board, picked by the Indiana Pacers with the No. 20 selection and then shipped to the Brooklyn Nets. LeVert's status in the draft was unknown given injuries that limited him to 18 and 14 games in each of the past two seasons, respectively.

Many expected Valentine's teammate Deyonta Davis to be selected in the lottery, but the one-and-done big man shockingly fell out of the first round, selected by the Boston Celtics with the No. 31 pick before getting traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Though not as big of a surprise as Davis' slip, Maryland's Diamond Stone also went undrafted in the first round. The big man was chosen by the New Orleans Pelicans with the No. 40 pick before going to the Pacers, becoming the second Terp drafted during the Mark Turgeon Era.

Purdue seven-footer A.J. Hammons, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, went to the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 46 pick.

Stone's teammate Jake Layman was picked by the Orlando Magic and traded to the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 47 pick.

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