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

1. Kyle Wiltjer – Kentucky / Gonzaga

It was a unique path through college basketball for Wiltjer, a 5-star recruit back in 2011. A 6’10 forward from Portland, he was lured by John Calipari and Kentucky, spending a pair of seasons with the Wildcats while winning a national championship. Wiltjer spent his final two seasons back west at Gonzaga, playing much more of a starring role on Mark Few’s squad.

Wiltjer played sparingly as a freshman but did see time in all of the Wildcats’ wins as they won the 2012 NCAA Tournament. He then averaged 10.2 points per game as a sophomore, seeing much more time, but not quite emerging yet. After sitting out a year, he became a star at Gonzaga for his final two seasons. A career-high 45 points at Pacific was just one taste of his talent as he led the Bulldogs to an Elite Eight as a junior and a Sweet Sixteen as a senior. By that senior year, he was averaging 20.4 points and 6.3 rebounds and was certainly no longer an overlooked piece.

The SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year before transferring, Wiltjer won a pair of WCC Tournament MVPs and was twice named First Team All-WCC. He was a Second Team All-American and was an absolute force for a Gonzaga program beginning its rise to today’s status as a national power. He was one of the best scorers and shooters late in his career, leading his conference in several offensive and defensive metrics as an upperclassman. Wiltjer got a brief run with the Houston Rockets but has spent much of the last six years playing overseas.

We are finished with our deep dive into the best college basketball players of the last decade from the state of Oregon; how do this state’s talent and list compare to some of the others from the series?