Five former Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball players have made National Basketball Association (NBA) rosters as the league officially kicked off its 2026-27 season on Tuesday.
The players include former Morehead State player
Riley Minix (Cleveland), former Murray State player
Ja Morant (Portland) and former Belmont players
Ben Sheppard (Indiana) and
Will Richard (Golden State) and former Little Rock player
Myron Gardner (Miami).
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Gardner is in his second year with Miami; he played in 45 games a year ago, averaging 3.6 points and 2.7 rebounds/game. He began his collegiate career at Georgetown before finishing at Little Rock. In his lone season in the OVC he earned second-team All-OVC honors after averaging 13.2 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.2 steals/game and netting a league-best 15 double-doubles.
Minix, the 2023-24 OVC Men's Basketball Player of the Year and OVC Male Athlete of the Year, began his career with San Antonio before ending last season with Cleveland. He saw action in six games, hitting 58.8 percent from the field and averaging 4.3 points/game.
Morant enters his eighth season in the NBA and first with the Portland Trailblazers after spending the first six with Memphis. He has averaged 22.4 points and 7.4 assists/game over 327 career games. As a rookie in 2019-20, he won NBA Rookie of the Year honors, making him one of three non-Power 5 players to win the award since 1983-84. At Murray State Morant earned first-team consensus All-American honors, making him just the third OVC student-athlete to earn first-team consensus All-American honors; he finished his final collegiate season with 331 assists, the sixth-most in NCAA single-season history. Last season he played in 50 games and averaged 23.2 points, 7.3 assists and 1.2 steals/game.
Richard played the 2021-22 season at Belmont, earning OVC All-Newcomer honors. That season Richard played in 33 games and averaged 12.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 steals/game. He would transfer to Florida where he helped the Gators win the 2025 NCAA Championship. He was selected No. 56 overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2025 NBA Draft. Last season he saw actdion in 69 games, averaging 6.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists/game.
Sheppard played three seasons in the OVC for Belmont was a First Round Draft Pick of the Pacers in 2023. He saw action in 57 games as a rookie, 63 regular season games in 2024-25 and 65 games a season ago, averaging a career-high 21.4 minutes/contest. Last year he averaged career-bests in points (7.1/game), rebounds (3.0/game) and assists (1.8/game). Sheppard was a first-team All-OVC selection in 2021-22 and became the 12th player to compete in the OVC and go on to be draft in the First Round of the NBA Draft. In 2021-22, Sheppard ranked fifth in the OVC in scoring (16.2 ppg).
Former OVC Players on NBA Opening Night Rosters
Myron Gardner, Miami Heat
Riley Minix, Cleveland Cavaliers
Ja Morant, Portland Trailblazers
Will Richard, Golden State Warriors
Ben Sheppard, Indiana Pacers