This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As much as anything that happened with the basketball in his hands during four years at North Carolina, guard Marcus Paige's Senior Night speech will have lasting impact.

That's saying a lot, considering he made the shot that seemingly forced overtime in the NCAA championship game, only to have a Villanova player top him at the buzzer. Standing at center court in Chapel Hill, Paige evoked tears from longtime coach Roy Williams by telling him, "I'm a 10 times better man than I was when I got here, so thank you."

Senior Night and the NBA, in the same story? It's true. All three of the Jazz's 2016 draftees ­— Weber State's Joel Bolomboy, Cal's Tyrone Wallace and Paige — played four years of college basketball at the same school, an unheard-of distinction in this era.

The natural question: What's wrong with these guys?

Actually, there's a lot to like about them.

Becoming too attached to them probably is not advisable, considering they were drafted late in the second round by a team already loaded with young players. Yet whether they end up playing for the Jazz, the D-League's Salt Lake City Stars or some team elsewhere in the world, cheering for them will be easy.

Journalism was one of Paige's two majors at UNC, for goodness sake. Wallace honored his late grandfather by completing a Cal degree in social welfare. Bolomboy is loved by everybody who knows him in Ogden, and he might be the player who breaks the Jazz's Curse of No. 22.

Numerology aside, actuarial tables of the Jazz's late-second-round draft history suggest one of the three will have an extended NBA career, based on the success stories of Shandon Anderson, Jarron Collins and others. Amid his share of first-round misses, former general manager Kevin O'Connor often hit in Round 2 with the likes of Paul Millsap and Wesley Matthews. His influence was evident in Dennis Lindsey's picks Thursday. The three seniors played a total of 400 collegiate games and their teams went a collective 82-27 this past season.

Explaining his second-round approach, O'Connor once said, "We say, 'OK, who succeeded in college?' Let's make a list of those players and then say, 'Why were they successful? And is that a skill that can help us?'"

O'Connor also said, "We try to evaluate them on the basis of the things they can do, as opposed to the things they can't do."

Bolomboy can rebound, a trait that translates to any level. Wallace can defend. Paige can run the pick-and-roll. Beyond those abilities, they're mature, multidimensional people who were serious students and big-time players. Flaws? Undoubtedly. Otherwise, they wouldn't have lasted through the first 51 picks or, honestly, stayed in school for four years.

But they finished their college careers, left good impressions on their campuses and made people want them to succeed in Utah or anywhere else they end up playing or working.

They seem unspoiled, which is refreshing. Weber State coach Randy Rahe recently said of Bolomboy, "He's got a little innocence to him, a little naiveté to him."

Wallace follows through, as showed by completing his degree after that promise to his grandfather. As he detailed in the Cal Sports Quarterly, "I told him I would finish."

Paige has some playfulness, as the first-team Academic All-American exhibited in a handwritten "NBA job application" published by The Players' Tribune. Asked to mark his top three shooting spots on the court, he placed an "X" at the right angle, writing "double clutch" in reference to his remarkable shot in the title game.

These three will be fun to follow. And what if Bolomboy can overcome the curse? He wore No. 21 at Weber State, but because Tibor Pleiss owns that number with the Jazz, Bolomboy picked No. 22.

Oh, boy. Ever since the Jazz came to town in 1979, the number has been haunted. Whether via criminal conviction (Bernard King), an 18-game losing streak (Carl Nicks), substance abuse (John Drew), waivers (Carey Scurry), injuries (Curtis Borchardt) or ineffectiveness (Morris Almond), the curse has haunted highly drafted players and 10-day contract signees alike — including J.J. O'Brien this past season.

The Jazz long ago should have taken No. 22 permanently out of issue. If Bolomboy succeeds in that number, they should retire it in his honor.

Twitter: @tribkurt