The NBA players who have come from the America East Conference is a fairly exclusive group, with Vin Baker, Malik Rose, Speedy Claxton and Jose Barea being the most prominent in recent seasons.

During the first half of the past decade, Taylor Coppenrath of Vermont won three consecutive conference Player of the Year awards.

More recently, Marqus Blakely also won the award as a sophomore and junior, but lost out to Muhammad El-Amin of Stony Brook in 2010.

Blakely went undrafted, but showed enough promise on the Clippers' Summer League team for them to sign him to a non-guaranteed deal. Blakely was the final player cut by the Clippers during the preseason and was selected by the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League with their first-round pick.

• More history from the America East Conference