Milwaukee Bucks: Getting to know Jordan Nwora, the 45th overall pick

How did Jordan Nwora fare at Louisville University?

Nwora didn’t immediately walk into a featured role with the Cardinals as a freshman, which was a season full of turmoil with the sudden firing of Rick Pitino going into the 2017-18 season amid the pay-to-play scandal.

It was in his sophomore season, though, where Nwora completely changed the course of his basketball journey and developed into an NBA prospects. Under then-new head coach Chris Mack, Nwora turned in an impressive season in which he averaged 17 points on .446/.374/.765 shooting splits, 7.6 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.9 steals over 31.9 minutes per game.

That was good for Nwora to be named the ACC’s Most Improved Player for the 2018-19 season, along with being named to the All-ACC third team. And it looked as if it would Nwora taken a sudden jump to the NBA going into the 2019 NBA Draft.

There were other plans on that front, however. In going through the pre-draft process, Nwora sustained a calf injury that shuttered his ability to perform in team and individual workouts. That eventually led to him taking his name out of the draft and return for his junior school. From that same piece by Lenzi, Nwora looked back on why he ultimately chose to go back to school:

"“I wasn’t able to do anything,” Nwora said. “I was out that whole month of May, and there were a lot of uncertainties because of that. I wanted to be sure I was in the best position, before making that jump. And that wasn’t the case.”"

Fortunately for Nwora, he was able to reinforce his brand of instant offense over his junior season where he went on to average 18 points on a .440/.402/.813 slash line, 7.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.7 steals across 33.1 minutes per game. Those marks led to Nwora landing on the All-ACC first team.

While Nwora and the rest of his team through they would have the ability to play for a national title last season, their chance to was taken away by the coronavirus pandemic effectively shutting down the country in the spring.

Quite the unceremonious note to end on for Nwora’s collegiate career, but after all of the improvements he made while at Louisville, he finally felt ready for the next step as he recently told Ryan Mayer of CBS New York ahead of draft night:

"“I feel like I improved every year. I got Most Improved Player my sophomore year. I was an All American my junior year so it’s like there’s not much more individually I can do,” said Nwora. “All I can do now is grow at the next level with pros around me, and I just felt like it was time to time to do that.”"