NEW YORK, June 28 -- The NBA draft had a retro theme last night, as the Milwaukee Bucks turned back the clock to a time when the top pick had played college basketball. The rest of the league looked a lot like 1999, with three point guards going in the top 10 and four first-rounders from the same college for the first time since that year.
The Bucks selected 7-foot center Andrew Bogut from the University of Utah with the No. 1 pick, marking the first time in five years that the top pick played at least one year of college basketball. Bogut was the consensus national player of the year after averaging 20.4 points and 12.2 rebounds as a sophomore. He also was a member of the Australian Olympic team last summer in Greece.
The Bucks chose the Aussie over North Carolina freshman Marvin Williams, who went second, to Atlanta.
"I was confident, but I wasn't 100 percent. It was 50-50. Now that I'm here, it's a great honor," Bogut said. "I can't believe it at the moment. I'll wake up tomorrow and every year, I'll probably have a couple of beers to celebrate the day when I went number one."
Cincinnati's Kenyon Martin was the last collegiate player to go first, to the New Jersey Nets in 2000. In subsequent years, top picks were Kwame Brown, Yao Ming, LeBron James and Dwight Howard; all but Yao were selected straight out of high school.
Bogut becomes the second No. 1 pick in the past three years to be born outside of the United States.
"Basketball is a global game, just like soccer is a global game," said Bogut, whose parents were Croatian immigrants. "You see the Manu Ginobilis of the world and the Yao Mings of the world. We can play the game in every country."
Utah and Portland made a trade before the draft, with the Jazz acquiring the third overall pick in exchange for pick Nos. 6 27. With the third pick, the Jazz selected Illinois point guard Deron Williams, who led the Fighting Illini to the national championship game last season.
Williams was followed by Wake Forest's Chris Paul, who went fourth to the New Orleans Hornets, and North Carolina's Raymond Felton, who went fifth to the Charlotte Bobcats. Williams, Paul and Felton became the first trio of point guards to go that high since 1999, when Steve Francis (No. 2), Baron Davis (No. 3), Andre Miller (No. 8) and Jason Terry (No. 10) all went in the top 10.
The Jazz has needed a point guard since John Stockton retired two years ago as the NBA's all-time leader in steals and assists. Williams said he wasn't intimidated about following the legend, who has a statue outside the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
"For me, it feels like an honor to follow John Stockton, one of the 50 greatest players of all time," Williams said. "It's good to come in after him, after his legacy. I just think [I'm] who the Jazz felt more comfortable with, the big guard, the strong guard, the biggest of the three. I just think I have a good all-around game. I know how to lead people. It's something I was born with, something I'm great at."
The deepest collection of talent belonged to North Carolina, college basketball's national champion, which produced four of the top 14 picks in Williams, Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants. Williams went second to Altanta. Felton (fifth) and May (13th) will be teammates on the Charlotte Bobcats. In need of a point guard, the Bobcats settled for the best remaining lead guard in Felton. May's selection was surprising considering the Bobcats already have Emeka Okafor, last season's Rookie of the Year, who plays the same position (power forward).
