Houston’s Marcus Sasser Selected No. 25 Overall in NBA Draft
Houston Cougars guard Marcus Sasser was selected No. 25 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday night.
The selection gave the Cougars a second first-round pick on Thursday. Forward Jarace Walker was taken in the Lottery portion of the draft.
Sasser was selected by Memphis, but the pick ultimately traded to Detroit, so Sasser will join the Pistons, which feature former Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham.
Sasser was an All-American last season and won the Jerry West Small Forward of the Year award. He was the first Houston consensus First-Team All-American since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984. He led Houston with 16.8 points per game last season. He also became the 50th Cougar to reach 1,000 career points and finished 15th in Houston history with 1,458 points.
Sasser is also the 14th first-round pick in Houston history, dating back to Gary Phillips, taken by the Boston Celtics in 1961.
UCF, BYU, Cincinnati and Houston will join the Big 12 Conference on July 1. The league will play at 14 teams for one season before Oklahoma and Texas transition to the Southeastern Conference on July 1, 2024.
San Antonio selected France’s Victor Wembanyama No. 1 overall. At No. 2, Charlotte selected Alabama’s Brandon Walker. At No. 3, Portland selected the G League Ignite’s Scoot Henderson. At No. 4, Houston selected the Overtime Elite’s Amen Thompson. At No. 5, Detroit selected the Overtime Elite’s Ausar Thompson. Amen and Ausar are twin brothers.
At No. 6, the Orlando Magic took Arkansas’ Anthony Black. At No. 7, the Indiana Pacers selected Bilal Coulibaly of France. At No. 8 the Washington Wizards selected Houston’s Jarace Walker. At No. 9 the Utah Jazz selected UCF’s Taylor Hendricks. At No. 10 the Dallas Mavericks selected Kentucky’s Cason Wallace (who was selected for Oklahoma City as part of a trade).
At No. 11, Orlando selected Michigan’s Jett Howard. At No. 12, Oklahoma City selected Duke’s Dereck Lively II (who was selected for Dallas as part of a trade). At No. 13, Toronto selected Kansas’ Gradey Dick. At No. 14, New Orleans selected UConn’s Jordan Hawkins. At No. 15, Atlanta selected Michigan’s Kobe Bufkin.
Picks Nos. 16-20 included Baylor’s Keyonte George to Utah, Indiana’s Jalen Hood-Schifino to the Los Angeles Lakers, UCLA’s Jamie Jaquez Jr. to Miami, Santa Clara’s Brandon Podziemski to Golden State and Villanova’s Cam Whitmore to Houston.
Picks Nos. 21-24 included Alabama’s Noah Clowney to Brooklyn, Duke’s Dariq Whitehead to Brooklyn, Iowa’s Kris Murray to Portland and Marquette’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper to Sacramento (he was later traded to Dallas).
