Former William & Mary men’s basketball standout Connor Burchfield was selected in the first round — 26th overall — of the 2018 NBA G-League Draft by the Austin Spurs on Saturday afternoon.
Last year’s national NCAA 3-point shooting champion, Burchfield, 23, became the fourth W&M player selected in the G-League draft and first since 2013.
The Austin Spurs are a G-League affiliate of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.
Burchfield joined a group of William & Mary alums that includes Quinn McDowell ’12 (a sixth round pick of the Springfield Armor), Danny Summer ’10 (eighth round by the Erie BayHawks) and Alex Smith ’09 (sixth round by the Reno Bighorns) in being selected in the NBA G-League Draft.
Last season both Marcus Thornton ’15 (Caton Charge) and Daniel Dixon ’17 (Maine Red Claws) competed in the NBA G-League. Burchfield would become the sixth W&M player to compete in the league. Over the summer, Burchfield worked out with the Charlotte Hornets prior to the NBA Draft. He signed and played for BC Juventus in Lithuania before being selected in Saturday’s G-League Draft.
At the Final Four in April, Burchfield capped off a remarkable collegiate career, laying claim to the title – “Best Shooter in America.” He won the Great Clips Men’s 3-Point Championship at the 30th annual State Farm College Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships and added the Samsung Straight Talk Battle of the Championship crown for good measure. Burchfield led the country in 3-point shooting in 2017-18, hitting 52 percent from long range.
Both his 2017-18 percentage and his career 3-point percentage (50.7) were not only W&M records, but Colonial Athletic Association marks as well. Burchfield started 28 of 31 games for W&M in 2017-18, averaging 12.6 points per game. He also led the country in effective field goal percentage (71.0), while ranking second in true shooting percentage (69.3) according to KenPom.com. His 89 3-pointers in 2017-18 rank fifth on the Tribe’s single-season list, and his 179 career triples rank eighth in W&M history. Burchfield set a W&M school-record and tied a CAA mark with 10 3-pointers in a 114-104 victory over Marshall in November.
Burchfield is currently one of eight former Tribe players currently player professionally, including David Cohn (Israel), Daniel Dixon (France), Laimis Kisielius (Lithuania), Omar Prewitt (Poland), Terry Tarpey (France), Marcus Thornton (Turkey) and Oliver Tot (Slovakia).
Burchfield joined Cohn and Tot from W&M’s 2018 graduating class to sign professional contracts, the most for a graduating class in school history. It is the 12th consecutive graduating Tribe class to have a player sign a professional contract. In total, 19 W&M players under head coach Tony Shaver have signed and played professionally
