Summit League Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)

3. John Konchar

Konchar is a 6’5 wing from West Chicago, Illinois who had quite the basketball career at Purdue Fort Wayne. He originally joined the Mastodons back in 2015 and would become a major part of the program’s history across the next four seasons, putting up monster numbers in the Summit League.

He was already a major playmaker as a freshman, averaging 13.0 points and 9.2 rebounds per game while helping lead the Mastodons to a regular season title. He had a career-high 19-rebound effort late in the year against North Dakota State and led the program to the NIT. In his next two seasons, he led Fort Wayne to the CIT and averaged just under 15 points a game with decent shooting numbers. As a senior, he averaged 19.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game and had a triple-double in the Summit League Tournament against South Dakota, though he fell short of the Big Dance.

A legend in Fort Wayne, Konchar was named First Team All-Summit in all four of his seasons, a rare honor in the conference’s history. He was one of the league’s best rebounders early in his career and was a top-level scorer by the end, eclipsing 2000 career points during his senior season. It’s a shame that the Mastodons never made strides in the Summit League Tournament, but Konchar’s basketball career wasn’t over, as he’s been with the Memphis Grizzlies for the last four years.