FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas men's basketball forward Adou Thiero was not selected in the first round of the NBA Draft on Wednesday. He is projected to be chosen in the second round, which is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Thiero, who is listed at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, led the Razorbacks in scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.1 and 5.8, respectively. He was largely projecged to be a second-round pick entering the draft.
A two-way athletic forward, Thiero was a strong defender for Arkansas this season, averaging 1.6 steals before missing 8 of the final 9 games of the season with a hyperextended left knee.
NBA scouts have listed shooting as their biggest concern regarding Thiero. He was 54.5% from the field in his lone season with the Razorbacks, but 68.8% of his shots came at the rim or in the paint. A further 14.2% came in the midrange.
Thiero shot 76.2% at the rim and 50.7% elsewhere in the paint but was 33.3% in the midrange and 25.6% from three-point range.
Thiero followed coach John Calipari to Arkansas after beginning his collegiate career at Kentucky, where he averaged 2.3 points as a freshman and 7.2 as a sophomore before doubling his output as a junior.
Thiero going in the second round breaks a 17-year streak for coach John Calipari in which he had a player selected in the first round. That stretch ran for the entirety of his tenure at Kentucky and for the final two seasons when he was at Memphis.
“I wouldn’t miss on Adou Thiero in this draft,” Calipari said last Thursday on the Pat McAfee Show. “If anybody misses that, it’s going to be like they missed on — you ready? — Immanuel Quickley.
“Adou Thiero is a first-round draft pick…. Adou can play in a physical game and, athletically, be in the top 1%. He’s somebody, if you pass on, they’ll look back and say, ‘How many people passed on him?’ He’s that good.”