NEW YORK – Former UConn star Liam McNeeley was selected by the Phoenix Suns, who traded his rights to the Charlotte Hornets, with the 29th overall pick in the NBA Draft Wednesday night.
The 6-foot-7 wing from Richardson, Texas, was one of the last players in the green room when he got up from his table on the draft floor, surrounded by his family and UConn coach Dan Hurley, then grabbed a Suns hat and walked the stage in a sharp, royal blue suit for his long-awaited moment with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
The pick was part of a deal not yet finalized in which the Hornets traded center Mark Williams for the 29th overall pick in 2025 and a 2029 first round pick, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
A five-star, McDonald’s All-American prospect when he arrived in Storrs, McNeeley became UConn’s 24th first-round pick, 52nd player drafted overall, and only the third one-and-done player in the program’s history.
McNeeley led the Huskies in scoring at 14.5 points per game, was second in rebounds at 6.0 and third in assists at 2.3 per game during the 2024-25 season. Touted as one of the best shooters in his high school class, a major area of focus for NBA scouts, McNeeley’s freshman year hit a bit of a bump in the road after he sprained his ankle on New Year’s Day and finished the season shooting 38.1% from the field and 31.7% from beyond the arc.
Still, McNeeley followed Stephon Castle as the Huskies’ second-consecutive Big East Freshman of the Year award winner. Castle, selected fourth overall by the San Antonio Spurs last year, and Andre Drummond, picked ninth by the Detroit Pistons in 2012, are the program’s only other one-and-dones.
While he wasn’t able to reach the ultimate goal of leading the program to a third-straight national championship, McNeeley did leave his mark on the program’s history books in just his second game back from the ankle injury. His 38-point performance at Creighton, 12-for-22 from the field and 5–for-10 from deep, stands as the UConn all-time scoring record for a freshman in a Big East game, and lifted the Huskies to their first-ever win in Omaha.
McNeeley was one of four players from the dominant 2023-24 Montverde Academy national championship team who were invited to the green room for the first round on Wednesday. Before McNeeley heard his name, Cooper Flagg was the No. 1 overall pick of the Dallas Mavericks, Derik Queen went No. 13 to Atlanta and was reportedly traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, and Asa Newell went 23rd to the Pelicans and was reportedly traded to the Hawks.
Former Yale-then-Michigan big man Danny Wolf, who worked out and became good friends with McNeeley leading up to the draft, was selected 27th overall by the Brooklyn Nets.