PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The all-time leader in steals at Rutgers has signed an NBA Exhibit-10 contract on draft night.

Five-year RU wing Caleb McConnell has officially signed an Exhibit-10 contract with Oklahoma City Thunder on the night of the 2023 NBA Draft.

An Exhibit 10 contract is a one-year, minimum-salary NBA deal that allows the franchise to convert the contract to a two-way contract if that change is made before the start of the regular season.

On Thursday night, McConnell became head coach Steve Pikiell's second Rutgers NBA signee in his seven seasons at the helm with Rutgers. McConnell follows Ron Harper Jr. (Toronto Raptors) in a Scarlet Knight signing an NBA contract in back-to-back seasons.

McConnell had one of the most illustrious careers at Rutgers and tracked down the great Eddie Jordan's 220 career steals with two steals in his final game at RU. McConnell played in 142 games and started 92 as a Scarlet Knight. He scored 972 points, had 263 assists, and scored 264 field goals while shooting 39 percent.

McConnell become the first player in RU history to win the national defensive player of the year award twice this season when he won the 2023 Lefty Driesell Award and the 2022-23 ESPN College Gameday National Defensive Player of the Year Award. 

McConnell became the first player in RU history to win an individual season award in the Big Ten Conference when he was awarded the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2022. McConnell was awarded the best defensive player in the Big Ten Conference with his consecutive Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2023 alongside Northwestern's Chase Audige. McConnell was of course also nominated to the Big Ten's First Team for defense for the second-straight year.

McConnell was a top-4 finalist for the 2022-23 Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Award. McConnell was selected as a semifinalist for the award last season, recognizing the top 10 defenders in the nation during the first week of March. 
McConnell was chosen as a member of the watch list for the Julius Erving Award this preseason, given to the best small forward in the country. The Erving Award named the top 20 small forwards in the country in the preseason. 

McConnell missed the first five games of last season with a knee injury but returned right back to form averaging 9.1 points. 5.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. McConnell averaged 2.5 steals per game with 71 steals, good for second in the conference. His 2.56 steals per game were good for sixth in the nation and first in the Big Ten Conference.

McConnell was the anchor of the top defensive team in the Big Ten and the seventh-best in the nation, as Rutgers allowed 60.4 points per game. The 2022-23 Rutgers defense was the best in the shot-clock era and the best at RU since 1981. McConnell guards each team's top scorer and holds them to some of their lowest-scoring outputs of the season.