Two Former Trojans Selected in NBDL Draft

Two former USC Trojans basketball players were selected in Saturday's National Basketball Developmental League draft.

Renaldo Woolridge and Marcus Simmons were both among the 122 players that were selected. Woolridge was picked in the fourth round by the Grand Rapids Drive with the 59th overall draft pick. The Los Angeles native played for and graduated from Tennessee before transferring to USC for the 2012-13 season.

Woolridge, the son of former NBA player Orlando Woolridge, played sparingly during his one season with the Trojans, participating in 20 games, but averaging just 5.3 minutes per game. He averaged 1.0 points and 1.3 rebounds for USC after averaging 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 13.6 minutes the prior year at Tennessee.

He did, however, represent USC in the college slam dunk contest during the Final Four weekend and threw down this monster jam:

Woolridge has spent time with the Los Angeles Lakers summer league team each of the last two seasons.

With the final pick of the sixth round of the 2014 NBDL Draft, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants selected former USC guard Marcus Simmons. While Simmons averaged only 5.1 points and 2.8 rebounds his senior year in 2010-11, he was one of the Trojans' most indispensable players in Kevin O'Neill's most successful season at USC.

Simmons was as much of a lockdown defender as you will find in the country. He picked up his man as soon as the ball was inbounded and harassed him throughout the entire play. Simmons did drop a career-high 20 points in the Pac-10 Tournament semifinals in a loss to Arizona his senior year.

Marcus Simmons has spent time playing in Japan for the Yokohama B-Corsairs from Japan’s BJ League. Simmons was also selected in the 2012 NBDL Draft by the Texas Legends, but later was traded to the Canton Charge where he was waived 10 days later.