The Marquette men’s basketball team has a long history of putting players in top professional leagues, dating to Gene Berce getting drafted in 1948 before the Basketball Association of America morphed into the NBA.

Here’s a look at the Golden Eagles (also Warriors and Hilltoppers) who have been picked in NBA (and ABA) drafts.

2024 Second-round picks Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro are the latest MU players to reach the pinnacle of hoops.

How many first-round NBA draft picks has Marquette produced?

Nine. Dean Meminger was the first in 1971 when his hometown New York Knicks selected the Harlem native 16^th, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper was the latest when he went No. 24 in 2023.

More: The Dream, bumblebees and Garden glory: An oral history of Marquette's 1970 NIT championship run

Is Dwyane Wade Marquette’s highest-ever draft pick?

Dwyane Wade went fifth to Miami in 2003. MU’s only other top-10 pick was Butch Lee in 1978 when the Atlanta Hawks plucked the NCAA player of the year at No. 10.

The school’s other first-round selections are: Bo Ellis (17^th by the Denver Nuggets in 1978), Lazar Haywood (30^th by the Minnesota Timberwolves via the Washington Wizards in 2010), Jimmy Butler (30^th by the Chicago Bulls in 2011) and Henry Ellenson (18^th by the Detroit Pistons in 2016).

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What about Maurice Lucas? Was he drafted by the ABA and NBA?

Maurice Lucas is an interesting case in that he was a first-round pick in three different drafts.

Lucas was picked by the Carolina Cougars in the American Basketball Association’s 1973 draft, then he was selected by the Chicago Bulls at No. 14 in the 1974 NBA draft.

Lucas opted to play in the ABA for the relocated Spirits of St. Louis.

When the ABA and NBA merged, Lucas was picked second by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1976 ABA dispersal draft.

Doc Rivers and Jae Crowder were second-round picks who found success. How many Marquette players have been picked in second round?

Since 1989, the NBA draft has been two rounds. With Kolek and Ighodaro MU has seen 19 second-round picks since Terry Rand was chosen by the Minneapolis Lakers in 1956, though Rand opted to play in the National Industrial Basketball League.

Several former MU players found success in the NBA after being second-round picks. Don Kojis was drafted 30^th by Chicago, but he also decided to play in the NIBL. He later landed with the Baltimore Bullets and several other teams, becoming a two-time all-star.

Doc Rivers (31^st by the Atlanta Hawks in 1983) and Jae Crowder (34^th in 2012 by the Cavaliers but traded to Mavericks) each played more than 800 NBA games, like Kojis. Interestingly, Rivers coached Crowder last season with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Other MU second-round picks include: Jim Chones (1973), Larry McNeill (1973), Earl Tatum (1976), Jerome Whitehead (1978), Bernard Toone (1979), Sam Worthen (1980), Tony Smith (1990), Jim McIlvaine (1994), Amal McCaskill (1996), Chris Crawford (1997), Travis Diener (2005), Steve Novak (2006), Darius Johnson-Odom (2012).

More: Did Al McGuire really slap Bernard Toone during NCAA title run? Former Marquette players talk about their relationship.

Ric Cobb was drafted in the 12^th (!!!) round in 1970

The length of the NBA draft fluctuated in the 1960s and '70s, but it reached a mind-boggling 19 rounds in 1972 when the league had 17 teams.

Ric Cobb, known as “The Elevator Man” at MU, was selected in the 12^th round with the 190^th pick by the Phoenix Suns, who also had taken teammate Joe Thomas in the sixth round. MU’s Jeff Sewell was selected in the eighth round that year by San Francisco.

Other MU players selected when the draft had double-digit rounds include: Walt Mangham (72^nd pick in 10^th round in 1960), Brad Luchini (146^th pick in 11^th round in 1968), Marcus Washington (166^th pick in 10^th round in 1974) and Artie Green (225^th pick in 10^th round in 1981).

Marquette had five players drafted in 1978, including Butch Lee, Jerome Whitehead and Jim Boylan

MU had its most players selected in the 1978 draft, which went 10 rounds with 22 teams.

That’s not surprising because those players helped the then-Warriors win the 1977 NCAA championship.

After Lee and Whitehead went in the first two rounds, Jim Boylan was picked in the fourth round by the Buffalo Braves while Ulice Payne and Gary Rosenberger were both ninth-round picks.

George Thompson among the ABA draft picks from Marquette

The ABA lasted from 1967-76 and competed with the NBA for talent, so often players were selected by both leagues.

Leaving MU as its leading scorer in 1969, George Thompson was picked by the NBA’s Boston Celtics and the ABA’s Minnesota Pipers. He chose the ABA and experienced the transient nature of those franchises, with the Pipers moving to Pittsburgh and then folding. Thompson was then picked by the Memphis Tams in the 1972 ABA draft that included players from defunct teams.

Several other MU players were both NBA and ABA draft picks: Bob Wolf (ABA's New York Nets and NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1967), Brian Brunkhorst (ABA's Los Angeles Stars and NBA's New York Knicks in 1968), Sewell was also picked by the ABA’s Indiana Pacers in 1970, Meminger by the Pacers in 1971, Gary Brell (ABA’s Denver Nuggets and NBA’s Bucks in 1971), Chones by ABA’s New York in 1972, Bob Lackey (ABA's New York and NBA's Atlanta in 1972), Lucas, Allie McGuire (ABA's Virginia Squires and NBA's Knicks in 1973) and Washington (by ABA’s Carolina Cougars in 1974).

More: George Thompson hadn't been around Marquette much in recent years. That changed a few months before he died.

What other Marquette players were picked in the NBA draft?

Mike Moran (10^th round in 1959), Dave Erickson (fourth round in 1963), Ron Glaser (fifth round in 1963), Jerry Homan (eighth round in 1975), Lloyd Walton (third round in 1976), Odell Ball (sixth round in 1979), Robert Byrd (seventh round in 1980), Oliver Lee (fourth round in 1981), Michael Wilson (third round in 1982), Dean Marquardt (sixth round in 1982), Brian Nyenhuis (seventh round in 1982), Terrell Schlundt (seventh round in 1983), Marc Marotta (ninth round in 1984), Walter Downing (sixth round in 1986), David Boone (fourth round in 1987).

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Dwyane Wade among Marquette's first-round picks in the NBA draft