Analyst: ‘No question’ NBA team drafts White

IOWA CITY - Aaron White takes a major step toward his NBA goal this week, and at least one analyst believes he's got a chance to become a first-round selection in next month's draft.

'He's going to get drafted, there's no question,” said ESPN's Fran Fraschilla, who analyzes college basketball and the NBA draft. 'There's a possibility - it only takes one team to like you - there's an outside possibility that he could sneak into the late first round.”

The NBA scouting combine began Wednesday in Chicago, and the former Iowa forward was one of 62 players to take part in the four-day camp and interview session. On-court workouts are held Thursday and Friday and televised by ESPN2.

White was a first-team all-Big Ten selection this year and two other seasons he was named third team. He ranks second in Iowa history in career points (1,859), third in rebounds (901) and crushed school marks for free throws (618) and attempts (800). He sank more free throws than any Big Ten player in the last 53 years.

Fraschilla, a former college coach, praised White's athletic ability and versatility.

'The thing that I think, let's take the bad first,” Fraschilla said. 'The bad is he's going to have to prove that he can defend one of the two positions he's going to play at in the league. Is he mobile enough and athletic enough to guard NBA small forwards, and at this point in time he's not strong enough to guard the elite power forwards. But that's OK because if you're a second-unit power forward in the league, there's a lot of guys that he matches up with.

'The best thing about Aaron White's opportunity right now is the way he ended his career at Iowa. The last eight games he averaged almost 23 points a game. He shot it well from deep and he made his free throws, which is what he's always done.”

White, who measured 6 feet, 8 3/4 inches while wearing shoes at the combine, scored 20 points or more in six consecutive games before ending his Iowa career with 19 in an NCAA tournament loss to Gonzaga. White finished fifth in Big Ten scoring (16.4 points per game) and fourth in rebounding (7.3 per game). He was the only player nationally to average more than 16 points and seven rebounds while shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and 80 percent from the free-throw line.

After Iowa's season ended in March, White has trained in California with EXOS and worked out for the San Antonio Spurs last week. After the combine, White likely will work out privately for several NBA clubs.

NBA Draft Express slots White as the 46th-best draft prospect and lists him going to Atlanta in the second round. The NBA draft consists of two rounds and is held June 25 in Brooklyn.

'I think he's got a really good chance (of going in the first round),” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said Wednesday on an I-Club stop in Marshalltown. 'Obviously it will be dependent upon how he does this week, how he does in his individual workouts, as well as his interviews. I feel like he'll do well in all three of those areas, which would obviously improve his draft stock. But I think his body of work has impressed a lot of people.

'The interest from our end has been very intense in terms of what they think of him and just knowing him and knowing his talent and his work ethic and his intelligence. There's no doubt in my mind he'll be in the league for 10 years.”

White could become the second Hawkeye drafted by an NBA club in consecutive years. Last June, Denver selected Devyn Marble and immediately traded him to Orlando. Marble played in 16 games with seven starts before losing the final month of the season to eye surgery.

Iowa's last first-round pick was Ricky Davis in 1998.

'I think (White is) a terrific jack-of-all-trades type guy, and I see him somewhere between 25 and 40,” Fraschilla said. 'But he's got to defend better because there were times this year that he was a conscientious objector on the defensive end of the floor. But I'm a fan.”

'He's got a chance to work his way into the lineup and get more and more playing time because he'll learn the system quickly,” McCaffery said. 'He'll adjust to the differences, which are major, obviously when you look at the caliber of athlete but also the rules. It's a different game. It's a longer game. It's quicker with the 24-second shot clock. He'll adjust to that really quickly.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com