Wyatt Maker

​The 6-foot-11 Wyatt Maker went straight from the North Salinas High School basketball court in 1982 to Villanova University. Two years later he was on the school’s NCAA championship team that pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in history when the eighth-seed Wildcats shocked the 35-2, 10-point favorite top-seed Georgetown Hoyas led by future NBA star Patrick Ewing, 66-64. Villanova’s iconic coach Rollie Massimino came directly to the Maker home in Salinas to sign the first-team All-Northern California, 3-time All-Monterey Bay League and All-Central Coast Section selection. He led the CCS in scoring and rebounds as a senior with an average of 25 points and 15 rebounds per game. Those numbers had every Pac-10 college, as well as several others, recruiting Maker who spent the summer before his senior year playing in the elite Olympic Development League in Los Angeles. He played in 98 games during his Villanova career, but suffered a stress fracture to a foot his sophomore season and had to red-shirt the Wildcats’ 1985 championship year. The Wildcats shot an NCAA record 78.6 percent from the field in the title game.