The Orlando and Utah Summer Leagues wrapped up yesterday, so now we turn our attention to the big event: Las Vegas!
24 NBA teams are sending squads to the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, and three of them have included former Marquette Golden Eagles on their rosters, and all three played for MU at the same time. Vander Blue will suit up for the Los Angeles Lakers squad, Trent Lockett will participate with the Atlanta Hawks, and Jamil Wilson was just announced as part of the Los Angeles Clippers roster on Thursday afternoon.
Lockett played for just one year with Marquette after graduating from Arizona State, but he picked a pretty good year to join the Golden Eagles. MU won a share of the Big East regular season title when Blue hit a layup at the buzzer to beat St. John’s, and the Golden Eagles would advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament a few weeks later. They wouldn’t have gotten there, though, without Wilson canning two three-pointers in the final 63 seconds of MU’s opening round win over Davidson.
All 24 Las Vegas Summer League teams will play three preliminary games before the entire group is seeded for tournament play beginning on July 12th. We will have to keep an eye on how far the Hawks and the Clippers advance, as Lockett and Wilson are both expected to play for the Marquette alumni team in The Basketball Tournament. The opening two rounds of games for Golden Eagles are set to be played on the same days as the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Vegas tournament, and it’s clearly in the best professional interest of both men to be with their respective Vegas teams as long as they’re making a deep run.
Marquette In Las Vegas Schedule (all times Central)
Friday, July 7
7pm: Atlanta vs Brooklyn (NBA TV)
7:30pm: Lakers vs Clippers (ESPN)
Saturday, July 8
7:30pm: Lakers vs Boston (ESPN)
Sunday, July 9
3pm: Atlanta vs New Orleans (NBA TV)
7pm: Clippers vs Utah (NBA TV)
Monday, July 10
3pm: Atlanta vs Chicago (ESPNU)
9pm: Clippers vs Milwaukee (ESPN2)
9:30pm: Lakers vs Sacramento (NBA TV)