Winthrop’s Chandler Vaudrin wasn’t an NBA draft pick, but he’s not done chasing dreams (original) (raw)

Chandler Vaudrin isn’t done chasing his NBA dreams.

The 6-foot-7 point guard, who earned Big South Conference Player of the Year honors and led the Winthrop men’s basketball team to a 12-seed in the NCAA tournament this past season, accepted an invitation to play on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ summer league team after Thursday’s NBA draft, media reports say.

Vaudrin, who went undrafted, reportedly signed an Exhibit 10 contract with Cleveland — allowing Vaudrin to participate in training camp in exchange for his G-League rights. The news was first reported by Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

The move gives Vaudrin a chance to show his strengths on an NBA stage. And a chance is all he’s ever needed: The big, pass-first, cerebral, left-handed point guard made the rare leap from Division II to Division I ball in 2019. It paid off his senior year when he averaged 12 points, 7.3 rebounds and 6.9 assists and led the nation in triple-doubles — all the while leading the Eagles to peaks their program had never before seen.

In 2020-21, led by Vaudrin, Winthrop burst out to the best start in program history (6-0) and then the best start in Big South history (9-0). The team continued its run into late January, peaking at 21 straight wins stemming from the end of the 2019-20 season. It even earned an AP Top 25 vote in 2021, something that’s only happened twice in 15 years.

Reports circulated earlier this week that Vaudrin had drawn “serious consideration” from league front offices and was rumored to have a chance to get drafted in the second round.

If drafted, the Uniontown, Ohio, native would have been the first player from Winthrop and only the second from the Big South to earn that honor. (Clarence Grier of Campbell — who was picked up by the Houston Rockets in the seventh round in 1987 — remains the only Big South alum to hear his name called on draft night.)

Vaudrin worked out for several teams leading up to Thursday’s draft, per media reports. Among them: the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Charlotte Hornets and Cleveland.

Vaudrin was recruited to Winthrop and coached by Pat Kelsey, who departed the Rock Hill school in March to coach at College of Charleston.

This story was originally published July 30, 2021, 8:49 AM.

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.