Nolan Hickman’s basketball career will pick back up in the NBA G League.
The former Gonzaga guard was selected No. 5 overall by the Capital City Go-Go, an affiliate of the Washington Wizards, during Saturday’s two-round G League Draft.
Including Hickman, three former West Coast Conference players were taken within the first seven picks. Santa Clara’s Adama Bal was selected one pick before Hickman, going No. 4 to the Grand Rapids Gold (Denver Nuggets) and former San Francisco/Pepperdine forward Stefan Todorovic was taken No. 7 by Motor City Cruise (Detroit Pistons).
Hickman, a two-time All-WCC player at Gonzaga who earned First Team honors during his senior season, will start his professional career in roughly two weeks’ time when the Go-Go visit the Long Island Nets for the season opener on Nov. 7.
The team’s roster hasn’t been finalized, but Capital City, which had three top-10 picks, made four total selections on Saturday. The Go-Go drafted Penn State’s Ace Baldwin with the third overall pick before using consecutive picks on Hickman at No. 5 and LSU’s Cam Carter at No. 6. Capital City drafted Bowling Green’s J.Z. Zaher with its fourth first-round pick and didn’t make any selections in the second round.
Hickman joined former Gonzaga backcourt mate Ryan Nembhard on the Dallas Mavericks’ Summer League game, averaging 5.3 points and 1.7 rebounds over three games.
The Seattle native made four NCAA Tournament appearances during his time at Gonzaga, starting 105 of 106 games his last three seasons. Hickman averaged a career-high 14.1 points as a junior and 10.9 points as a senior. He was one of the nation’s most accurate 3-point shooters last season, knocking down 44.5% of his attempts from behind the arc after making 41.7% as a junior.
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