With Cade (Likely) Going No. 1, Here’s A look at OSU’s NBA Draft History

The Cowboys are expected to have their first No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick in program history Thursday night, but Cade Cunningham will be far from the first Poke to ever hear his name called.

Oklahoma State has had 36 NBA (and BAA) Draft picks going back to 1948. The Providence Steam Rollers of the Basketball Association of America (the predecessor to the NBA) took Oklahoma A&M’s A.L. Bennett in the second annual BAA Draft.

A native of Holdenville, Bennett was a two-time All-American under Henry Iba and a member of the Cowboys’ 1946 National Championship team, tallying six points in the Aggies’ 43-40 victory over Kentucky.

Bob Harris became the program’s first, first-round pick the next season. The Fort Wayne Pistons, now the Detroit Pistons (it’s all connected), took Bob Harris third overall. Until likely Thursday night, Harris is the highest draft pick OSU has ever had.

Harris was a First Team All-American for the 1948-49 season. Oklahoma A&M’s J.L. Parks was also an All-American that year and was taken by the Indianapolis Olympians.

Harris is one of nine first round picks the program has had, and there was a big time gap between Harris and OSU’s next first round pick, Byron Houston. The Chicago Bulls took Houston 27th overall in the 1992 draft, 43 years after Harris was picked.

The Draft has taken many forms over the years. It used to be that teams would pick until the prospects ran out. From 1960 to 1969, there were 21 rounds. That was cut to 10 by 1974. Then it was seven rounds for a few years before landing on its current format of two rounds in 1989.

Fourteen Cowboys have been selected in the two-round era, starting with Richard Dumas in 1991 (46th overall to the Phoenix Suns). He was taken just a handful of picks ahead of Von McDade (53rd overall to the New Jersey Nets).

When the Bulls took Houston late in the first round in 1992, they followed that up in taking another Cowboy just six picks later when selecting Corey Williams.

Houston was one of Eddie Sutton’s six first round picks, joining Brooks Thompson (1994), Bryant Reeves (1995), Desmond Mason (2000), Tony Allen (2004) and Joey Graham (2005).

Cunningham will be the first Cowboy taken since Jawun Evans was drafted in 2017. The Philadelphia 76ers took Evans after a pre-agreed upon trade with the Los Angeles Clippers.

Here is every Aggie/Cowboy taken in the Draft: