Another UConn men’s basketball player is heading to the San Antonio Spurs.

Tarris Reed Jr. was selected by the Denver Nuggets with the 26th pick of the first round in the NBA Draft on Tuesday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The pick was immediately traded to San Antonio in exchange for the 35th pick of the draft.

Reed will be teammates with former UConn star Stephon Castle, a 2024 lottery pick who helped the Spurs get to the NBA Finals this season, where they lost to the New York Knicks. Reed becomes the 24th UConn men’s basketball player to be a first-round draft pick and fourth under Dan Hurley. He’s the ninth Husky to be selected in the draft under Hurley and 52nd overall.

Reed, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound center, began his career at Michigan and averaged 9.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore before hitting the transfer portal after head coach Juwan Howard was fired.

Reed made an official visit to UConn during the Huskies’ 2024 national championship parade and soon committed to the Huskies, hoping to participate in his own parade over the next couple of years.

Reed backed up Samson Johnson at center his junior season despite putting up better overall numbers in points (9.6), rebounds (7.3) and even minutes per game (19.9). As the starter this past season, Reed earned first-team All-Big East honors while leading the team in scoring (14.7) and rebounding (9.0) and topping the Big East in field goal percentage (60.7). 

He really boosted his stock in this year’s NCAA Tournament, kicking it off with a historic 31-point, 27-rebound performance against Furman. Reed notched a double-double against UCLA, tallied 20 points in a win over Michigan State, then had a huge 26-point, nine-rebound game in an Elite Eight win over Duke. 

UConn ultimately went to the national title game where it fell to Reed’s former team, Michigan, despite another double-double by Reed.

Reed, a deeply spiritual young man, is a throwback center with deft offensive moves and footwork and a nose for rebounds. However, that’s not exactly the blueprint these days for an NBA center, who are often asked to shoot 3’s and guard out on the perimeter. Reed attempted exactly seven 3-pointers in four years of college, making one. He was 0-for-4 from distance last season at UConn.

Still, Reed, 22, is a good passer and screener and has good shooting fundamentals that could translate into being a good, face-up big man in the NBA.