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Big 12 dominates 2026 NBA Draft with 13 players selected

2026 NBA Draft - Round One Portraits
Steve Freeman/NBAE via Getty Images

The Big 12 led all conferences with 13 players selected in the 2026 NBA Draft, including nine who went in the first round. Among them were the top two picks in AJ Dybantsa (BYU to the Wizards) and Darryn Peterson (Kansas to the Jazz).

Six programs tied atop the team leaderboard with three selections apiece, but only one had three players taken in the first round. That was Michigan, which saw the entire starting front court from its national title squad get selected within the lottery range Tuesday night.

Michigan became the first Big Ten program to produce three lottery picks since the lottery expanded to 14 picks in 2004. It was the first time in 36 years the Wolverines saw three players selected in the first round of an NBA Draft.

Arkansas, Arizona, Duke, Houston and Tennessee were the other programs that had three players selected over the course of the entire draft. In total 54 of the 60 players selected came from college basketball. Only two of the 54 — Allen Graves from Santa Clara and Izaiyah Nelson from South Florida — came from outside the high-major ranks.

Ten of the 54 began their college careers outside the high-major ranks, but the other eight aside from Graves and Nelson finished their college tenures at high-major schools.

Here is the full breakdown of the leagues and schools that produced the most 2026 NBA Draft picks.

Big 12 (13)

Arizona (3): Brayden Burries (10), Koa Peat (30), Jaden Bradley (50)

Houston (3): Kingston Flemings (8), Chris Cenac (27), Emanuel Sharp (45)

BYU (2): AJ Dybantsa (1), Richie Saunders (32)

Baylor: Cameron Carr (24)

Cincinnati: Baba Miller (36)

Iowa State: Joshua Jefferson (28)

Kansas: Darryn Peterson (2)

Texas Tech: Christian Anderson (18)

ACC (12)

Duke (3): Cameron Boozer (3), Isaiah Evans (33), Maliq Brown (44)

Louisville (2): Mikel Brown Jr. (6), Ryan Conwell (37)

North Carolina (2): Caleb Wilson (4), Henri Veesaar (52)

Florida State: Lajae Jones (54)

SMU: Jaron Pierre Jr. (58)

Stanford: Ebuka Okorie (17)

Virginia: Ugonna Onyenso (53)

Virginia Tech: Tobi Lawal (48)

Big Ten (11)

Michigan (3): Morez Johnson Jr. (9), Yaxel Lendeborg (11), Aday Mara (12)

Purdue (2): Braden Smith (38), Trey Kaufman-Renn (59)

Illinois: Keaton Wagler (5)

Iowa: Bennett Stirtz (16)

Northwestern: Nick Martinelli (55)

Ohio State: Bruce Thornton (31)

UCLA: Tyler Bilodeau (43)

Washington: Hannes Steinbach (14)

SEC (11)

Arkansas (3): Darius Acuff Jr. (7), Meleek Thomas (34), Trevon Brazile (35)

Tennessee (3): Nate Ament (13), Ja'Kobi Gillespie (42), Felix Okpara (46)

Kentucky (2): Jayden Quaintance (20), Otega Oweh (41)

AlabamaLabaron Philon (22)

Texas: Dailyn Swain (15)

Vanderbilt: Tyler Nickel (47)

Big East (5)

St. John's (2): Zuby Ejiofor (23), Dillon Mitchell (40)

UConn (2): Tarris Reed Jr. (26), Alex Karaban (29)

St. John's: Bryce Hopkins (49)

American (1)

South Florida: Izaiyah Nelson (51)

WCC (1)

Santa Clara: Allen Graves (19)

International (6)

France: Narcisse Ngoy (57)

Germany: Jack Kayil (39)

Mexico: Karim Lopez (21)

Russia: Vsevolod Ishchenko (56)

Spain: Sergio de Larrea (25)

Trinidad & Tobago: Malique Lewis (60)

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