A pair of the Big Sky’s best basketball players are both heading to the Big Apple.
Jacob Wiley, the Big Sky Conference’s men’s basketball Most Valuable Player in his only season at Eastern Washington, and Jeremy Senglin, the conference’s all-time best 3-point shooter, are both heading to the Brooklyn Nets by way of Sin City.
Wiley, a fast-rising prospect who started his career at Montana before graduate transferring from Lewis & Clark State to EWU, and Senglin, Weber State’s second all-time leading scorer, signed partial guarantee free agent contracts with Brooklyn immediately following Thursday night’s NBA Draft.
Former EWU standout Jake Wiley
Both first-team All-Big Sky performers signed “two-way” contracts, a new deal under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement effective in 2017-18. Each NBA team can sign two players to two-way contracts. Per the new rule, NBA teams can keep players they want to develop in the G-League (formerly the NBA D-League) without carrying that player on the full-time NBA roster. The NBA team can bring players on a two-way contract up to the active roster for as many as 45 days per season for a pro-rated salary and no salary cap hit.
Wiley and Senglin will both play on the Nets’ NBA summer league team in Las Vegas next month with eyes on landing an active roster spot with one of the league’s most maligned franchises.
After playing as a true freshman on Montana’s NCAA Tournament team five years ago, Wiley walked an atypical path to the NBA. Following his first winter in Missoula, the 6-foot-7 jumping jack power forward ran indoor track and participated in spring football for the Griz. He proclaimed to have lost his love for basketball, not competing in the sport for a full year.
RELATED: FULL CIRCLE: Wiley left basketball only to find love for the game once again
Entering his third college year, Wiley watched the NCAA Tournament and found himself longing for the hardwood. He went to LC State, close to his native Newport, Washington, earning All-America honors twice. He secured his undergraduate degree to become eligible for a final Division I season.
His final year, Wiley averaged 20.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per game during EWU’s 22-win season. During Big Sky play, Wiley was a model of efficiency and endurance. The high-motor, relentless slasher averaged 24.6 points and 10.3 rebounds in 36.1 minutes per game against conference competition. He shot 66 percent from the floor during league play while attempting 256 tries. He shot 81.7 percent from the free throw line, ninth in the league, and his 2.5 blocked shots per game ranked in the top 10 averages in Division I during his All-American season.
RELATED: Wiley, Hooker, Hall earn All-American recognition
Wiley had private workouts with a slew of NBA teams, including the Nets, the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic. Some prognosticators projected Wiley as a second-round pick similar to Bolomboy, the league’s all-time leading rebounder and MVP two years ago before being selected by the Jazz.
Senglin set the table for a record-setting career by earning Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors four years ago. He played point guard on a veteran squad that featured Big Sky MVP Davion Berry. Senglin drilled 62 3-pointers and played 30 minutes a game for a 19-win team that fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Arizona after winning the league tournament at home.
Weber State senior Jeremy Senglin
Senglin’s second season, the 6-foot-1, 195-pounder averaged 16.4 points per game but Weber had its only losing record in 11 seasons under Randy Rahe, the four-time Big Sky Coach of the Year. A broken jaw midway through conference play cost Senglin a month of action. Weber State limped into the Big Sky Tournament as the No. 8 seed, falling to host Montana in the first round of the league tournament in Missoula.
Partly due to moving Senglin off the ball and partly due to the development of current NBA center Joel Bolomboy, Weber State surged to the second NCAA Tournament berth of Senglin’s career during his junior year. Two years ago, Senglin put his shooting prowess on full display, nailing 106 3-pointers while shooting 43.3 percent from beyond the arc. He entered his senior season with 1,359 career points.
As a senior, Senglin hit a Big Sky single-season record 132 3-pointers, six more than any player in the country. He also shot 44.8 percent from deep, fifth-best in the NCAA despite attempting more triples (295) than any player in Division I who shot more than 40 percent. His true shooting percentage led all players entered in this year’s NBA Draft.
RELATED: Weber State’s Senglin ready to take Big Sky by storm
Senglin’s prolific 3-point shooting his senior season gave him 345 triples in his decorated career, 37 more than any player in Big Sky history before him. He shot 41.9 percent from deep for his career. His 719 points his senior season (eighth-most in Big Sky history) gave him 2,078 points in his career. That total surpassed Bruce Collins for Weber State’s all-time scoring record, second only to Idaho’s Orlando Lightfoot (2,102) in league history.
The NBA Summer League opens in Las Vegas on July 7.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
