Former Milwaukee Hamilton star poised to be first round NBA pick

About a year ago Kevon Looney left Milwaukee for Los Angeles to attend UCLA. Now he'll leave Los Angeles and head to any number of cities with NBA teams. That will be decided during Thursday night's NBA draft.

Looney was a McDonald's All-American at Milwaukee Hamilton High School in and then played a big part in UCLA's surprising Sweet Sixteen run this year. Looney headed west to play at one of the most storied basketball programs in the country. But the NBA was always on his mind. That's exactly what his former high school coach saw at a young age. Coach Tom Diener coached Kevon for three years at Hamilton. He's now the head coach at Cedarburg High School.

\"Kevon is such a coachable kid,\" Diener said.  \"He's a really humble, nice kid.  He was really easy to coach.  More than anything, I just needed to stay out of his way. Give him an opportunity to blossom and stay out of his way.  That's exactly what we did.\"

Diener credits Looney's parents too.  He says they were great examples for Kevon.

Diener says you could see early on that Looney had the tools to be great. Diener says it was in his sophomore year that they realized there would be more than just college basketball - there was a shot at the pros. He thinks Kevon will do well in the NBA because he loves the game, is a 'gym rat', and has always been humble.

\"First of all his physical attributes are number one,\" Diener said. \"But then with that his attitude. Again he's just a great person, humble person, everybody likes kevon and that's really going to take him a long ways in the NBA.\"

Most projections have Looney going in the mid-to-late first round.