NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Kentucky of last decade

4. Drew McDonald – Northern Kentucky

We touched with Faulkner about how Northern Kentucky got its footing in the Horizon League, and McDonald is a major reason why that originally happened. A 6’8 forward from Cold Spring, he was an extremely underrated prospect who became the star for John Brannen’s Norse across four seasons. McDonald arrived in 2015 and left four years later as one of the program’s finest performers.

McDonald wasn’t a starter as a freshman but still managed to average 10.5 points per game. As a full-time starter, he developed into the best frontcourt piece in the Horizon League, averaging at least 16 points per game in each of those three years. He had a career-high 37 points in a win over Cleveland State, had a number of double-double performances, and helped lead the Norse to their first two NCAA Tournament appearances as a program.

He was the Horizon League Player of the Year in a senior season in which he led the conference in rebounds while nearly leading it in points as well. A three-time All-Horizon League First Teamer, McDonald left campus in 2019 as the program’s all-time leading scorer, while also sitting in the top 10 of the all-time conference leaderboards in points and rebounds. McDonald has settled into a successful life post-basketball, still living in the state of Kentucky.