KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Freshman forward Nate Ament of the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team went No. 13 overall in the 2026 NBA Draft. He was picked in the first round Tuesday night by the Miami Heat, with his rights then traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
NBA commission Adam Silver announced Ament’s name at 9:31 p.m. at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., live on ABC and ESPN.
Ament is the co-sixth-highest draftee in Tennessee history and is the program’s top draftee since 2002, when Marcus Haislip went No. 13 overall. Ament is the ninth top-15 pick for the Volunteers, as well as the 13th in the first round and the 17th in the top 30.
The 58th player drafted out of Tennessee, Ament is the second player picked by the Miami Heat, following Josh Richardson (No. 40 in 2015). The Bucks, who will receive Ament via trade, have picked two prior Volunteers, in the aforementioned Haislip and Ernie Grunfeld (No. 11 in 1977).
In addition, Ament is Tennessee’s sixth one-and-done freshman selected in the NBA Draft, including the fifth in head coach Rick Barnes‘ tenure and the fourth to go in the first round. He is the highest-drafted player of that group, six spots ahead of Tobias Harris, who went No. 19 in 2011.
A native of Manassas, Va., Ament was the second player chosen from an SEC school and the 10th freshman to come off the board.
Ament is the 36th NBA Draft choice to play for Barnes, who has had a total of 48 of his players reached the NBA across his 39 years as a head coach. Adding in his eight years as an assistant, Barnes has trained 55 future NBA players, including 42 draftees.
Barnes has now produced 14 NBA players at Tennessee, including 11 draft picks and five first-round selections. All of those have come in the last eight years (2019-26).
Ament dazzled in his lone season on Rocky Top, averaging 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He scored 584 points, the third-most by a Tennessee freshman, and started all 35 games in which he appeared.
The 6-foot-10, 207-pounder earned Second Team All-SEC accolades from both the media and the league’s head coaches. An SEC All-Freshman Team and NABC First Team All-Central District honoree, he was one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Award and a finalist for the Kyle Macy Award.
A six-time SEC Freshman of the Week and one-time SEC Player of the Week, Ament accumulated the second-most weekly honors (seven) by a freshman since the former award was reinstated in 2005-06.
Ament finished with the third-most made free throws (196) and fourth-most free-throw attempts (248) in a single campaign by a Volunteer, setting the program’s freshman record with each number. He ranked No. 14 in Division I in the former category this year and No. 19 in the latter, both fourth-best among freshmen.
The University of Tennessee Athletics Male Newcomer of the Year, Ament tied for the fifth-most 27-point showings (five) by an SEC freshman in the last 20 seasons (2006-26). He also became just the fourth SEC freshman in that span to score 28-plus points four times in league play.
This is the seventh time in the last eight years at least one Volunteer has been picked in the NBA Draft, including the sixth in a row. With the 2026 NBA Draft still incomplete, Tennessee will finish as one of no more than four schools to achieve the former feat and as one of no more than five to achieve the latter.
Before this span, Tennessee’s longest streak of NBA Draft choices in the two-round era (since 1989) was two years, 2014 and 2015. Prior to this era, the Volunteers had a nine-year tally from 1963-71 and a seven-year figure from 1979-85.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
