Basketball: Babbitt, Johnson taken in NBA Draft

RENO, Nev. - Former Nevada players Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson were selected in the first and second rounds of the 2010 National Basketball Association Draft, held Thursday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Babbitt was taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round as the 16th overall pick and immediately traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, while Johnson went to the Blazers as the 34th overall pick. Babbitt and Johnson are the fifth and sixth Wolf Pack players to be drafted in the last seven years.

The 2010 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year and Associated Press honorable-mention All-American, Babbitt ties for the highest draft pick in Nevada history with Kirk Snyder who was drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 16th overall pick in 2004 and is the third first-round pick in school history.

This year marks the third time in school history and second time in the last four years that Nevada has had two players drafted in the same year. Johnny High (Phoenix Suns) and Edgar Jones (Milwaukee Bucks) were both drafted in the second round in 1979, while Nick Fazekas (Dallas Mavericks) and Ramon Sessions (Milwaukee Bucks) went in the second round in 2007.

A 6-9, 225-pound forward from Reno, Babbitt became the first men's basketball student-athlete in Nevada history to be named an ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American, earning second-team honors this year. A two-time first-team All-WAC selection and all-district honoree by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers Association, Babbitt led the Wolf Pack in scoring and rebounding in each of his two seasons at Nevada. In 2009-10, he ranked second in the WAC and ninth in the NCAA with 21.9 points and second in the league and 51st in the nation with 8.9 rebounds per contest. Babbitt also broke the school single-season scoring record with 743 points in 2009-10 and became just the eighth player in school history to reach 1,000 points in two seasons.

He led the WAC and checked in at third in the nation in free throw shooting at 91.7 percent (199-217) this year and broke Nevada's single-season records for free throws made (199) as well as free throw percentage. He also set the school record for consecutive free throws made, knocking down his final 34 free throw attempts of the season.

Babbitt ended his Wolf Pack career ranked 12th on Nevada career scoring list with 1,316 points and is also first in career free throw shooting at 89.3 percent (351-393) and fifth in career three-point percentage at 42.1 percent (75-178). He started all 68 games over the last two years and scored in double figures in 59 of those 68 contests. In his Wolf Pack career, Babbitt averaged 19.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

A 6-3, 195-pound guard from Reno, Johnson earned second-team All-Western Athletic Conference honors this season after leading the conference and ranking 22nd in the nation with 5.6 assists per game. He also was second on the team and eighth in the WAC in scoring with 15.7 points per game this season.

A two-time all-district selection by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Johnson led the Wolf Pack in assists in each of his three seasons and finishes his career ranked fourth in all-time assists at Nevada with 445. He became the sixth player in school history to score at least 1,000 points and dish out at least 250 assists and ends his career ranked ninth in all-time scoring at Nevada with 1,441 points.

Johnson played in 101 career games with 99 starts and averaged 14.3 points, 4.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds in his Nevada career. He was also named the 2008 WAC Freshman of the Year and earned first-team all-conference honors as a sophomore.