In a meteoric rise, Nevada basketball alum Kobe Sanders was selected in the second round of the NBA draft on Thursday night.

Sanders went 50th overall to the New York Knicks, which traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers. Sanders is the 17th player in program history selected in the NBA draft. He’s the highest-drafted Wolf Pack player since Cody Martin went 36th overall to the Charlotte Hornets in 2019.

Sanders ascended up draft boards following his senior season at Nevada, which followed four years at Cal Poly. The 23-year-old 6-foot-8 wing player scored more than 1,500 points in his late-blooming college career. He didn’t become a full-time starter at Cal Poly until his junior season and wasn’t a double-digit scorer until his fourth college year when he averaged 19.6 points per game for the Mustangs in 2023-24.

Using his extra COVID year, Sanders transferred to Nevada last offseason and started 32 of 33 games, averaging 15.8 points, 4.5 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. He made 46 percent of his shots, including 34.2 percent from three, and sank 79.5 percent of his free throws en route to third-team All-Mountain West honors. NBA teams like his combination of size, mid-range shooting ability and ball-handling skills.

Sanders still appeared a longshot to be selected entering the pre-draft process before a strong showing at the Portsmouth Invitational paved the way for an invite to the NBA Draft Combine where he went through testing, shooting and measurement drills but was unable to take part in scrimmages due to an ankle injury. Sanders then completed a dozen workouts with NBA teams.

Sanders is seen as a player who has yet to reach his ceiling. He was lightly recruited out of high school where he was an unrated prospect from Spring Valley, Calif., outside of San Diego playing for Christian High School, averaging just 12 points per game as a junior before improving that total to 16.7 ppg as a senior. Nevada head coach Steve Alford believes Sanders’ best basketball has yet to be played.

“He passes the eye test,” Alford said before the draft. “That’s the first thing with that next level. They do it in shoes, out of shoes, all this kind of stuff. But he’s right at 6-9 with shoes on. And to be able to play point, to be a combo, to be somebody that can score the way he can score, he’s got a very good in-between game. His three ball is getting better. I think the only thing that was missing with Kobe is he doesn’t have that experience of being (on the bigger stage). With our team, though we had a down year in our expectations, it was really the only year he’s been playing in front of crowds. He didn’t have that at Cal Poly. He didn’t have that in high school. We’ve been telling everybody his best basketball is ahead of him because he’s very skilled, he’s got a great basketball IQ, he picks things up quickly. … He gets it. He wants to be good. He wants be great. And because of his basketball skill foundation, I think he’s only gonna get better. So, hopefully he gets picked and hopefully he’s in a really organization that will work with him and continue his development because I really do think two to three years from now you’ve got a really special player.”

Sanders is Nevada’s first NBA draft pick since Jalen Harris went in the second round (59th overall) in 2020. He is the first Cal Poly player selected since Lewis Cohen was a 10th-round pick (199th overall) in 1978.

Here is our one-on-one sit-down with Kobe Sanders from the 2024-25 season.