Daniel Wilco | NCAA.com | November 19, 2020

College basketball teams with the most NBA 1st-round draft picks

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Since the NBA Draft's inception in 1947, around 1,500 players have been drafted in the first round. About 90 percent of those players came from a Division I school. Chances are, if you picked one at random, they'd have worn blue in college.

In 2020, the NBA draft started with Georgia star Anthony Edwards going No. 1 overall to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Edwards is the first player from UGA to go No. 1 overall and the Bulldogs' ninth first-round pick.

Here’s how the top 20 schools stack up:

College basketball teams with the most NBA first-round draft picks

Rank	College	Conference	First-round picks
1	Kentucky	Southeastern	54
2	North Carolina	Atlantic Coast	52
3	Duke	Atlantic Coast	48
4	UCLA	Pac-12	39
5	Kansas	Big 12	33
6	Michigan	Big Ten	27
7	Indiana	Big Ten	26
8	Arizona	Pac-12	24
8	Louisville	Atlantic Coast	24
8	Syracuse	Atlantic Coast	24
11	Ohio State	Big Ten	23
12	Michigan State	Big Ten	21
13	Notre Dame	Atlantic Coast	20
13	Connecticut	American Athletic Conference	20
13	Maryland	Big Ten	20
16	Georgia Tech	Atlantic Coast	19
17	Texas	Big 12	18
18	North Carolina State	Atlantic Coast	16
18	Minnesota	Big Ten	16
18	St. John's (NY)	Big East	16

No big surprises there. The top 10 schools there account for more than half of the NCAA championships alone.

Since 1947, 69 top overall picks have come from NCAA Division I schools. Two have come from overseas, and three from high school.

No schools have seen more No. 1 picks than Duke, which has seen four.

Duke’s four are Art Heyman (1963, New York Knicks), Elton Brand (1999, Chicago Bulls), Kyrie Irving (2011, Cleveland Cavaliers) and Zion Williamson (2019, New Orleans Pelicans).

In all, 46 schools have had at least one No. 1 pick taken.

Here’s how the top schools rank:

Rank	College	Conference	No. 1 overall picks
1	Duke	Atlantic Coast	4
2	Kentucky	Southeastern	3
3	North Carolina	Atlantic Coast	2
3	UCLA	Pac-12	2
3	Kansas	Big 12	2
3	Indiana	Big Ten	2
3	Michigan	Big Ten	2
3	Maryland	Big Ten	2
3	Nevada-Las Vegas	Mountain West	2
3	Louisiana State	Southeastern	2
3	Georgetown	Big East	2
3	Utah	Pac-12	2
3	Houston	American Athletic Conference	2
3	Cincinnati	American Athletic Conference	2
3	Purdue	Big Ten	2
3	Kansas State	Big 12	2
3	West Virginia	Big 12	2
3	Texas-El Paso	Conference USA	2
3	Duquesne	Atlantic 10	2

Having North Carolina second in overall picks, and Duke with the most No. 1 picks, should clue you in to which conference reigns supreme in the NBA Draft.

Through 2020, the Atlantic Coast Conference has had an impressive 271 players drafted in the first round, approximately 20 percent of all Division I players drafted. The Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC are right behind the ACC.