Highlights From College Career: McLean played under Arizona coach Lute Olson for four years and went to the NCAA Tournament every year during his career, with “some super highs and some super lows.” During his freshman year, his team became the first No. 2 seed team to lose to a No. 15 seed team, Santa Clara, in the first round. “That was at the time the biggest upset in NCAA history.”

During his sophomore year in 1994, Arizona made it to the Final Four but lost to Arkansas, which ended up winning the whole tournament.

The team lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in his junior year, and during his senior year, the team made it to the Sweet 16 but lost to Kansas. That last game during his senior year is one he’ll never forget; he got a bad case of food poisoning the night before and ended up in the hospital on IVs just 2 1/2 hours before game time. He ended up being able to play for only 15 minutes.

What He’s Doing Now: Founded Intersect Capital, a family office in San Ramon, Calif., that advises many professional athletes, including former Chicago Cubs outfielder Dexter Fowler and Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “So many things happen within a game that may go your way or may not that could have been predicted, that may not have been predicted. But if you over prepare, you’re ready for it,” he said. “It’s very similar to our line of business now in terms of helping people plan for the known and the unknown. There are things you can control and things you can’t control, and maintaining your emotions and your poise—that goes a long way in wealth management.”

“The things you’ll miss the most afterwards are the bus rides, the locker room, the schedule, the sense of accountability for somebody else. What I learned quickly in building a business and managing people’s money is, you have to do the same thing.”

Highlights From College Career: He played all four years at Old Dominion and then served as a graduate assistant coach for one year. He played in the NCAA Tournament during his freshman year, but the team got knocked out by Southern Methodist University in the first round. The next year, the team was a No. 8 seed and beat West Virginia but lost to Duke University, which went on to the national title game but lost to Louisville.

Trax is still the all-time 3-point percentage leader at Old Dominion, at 44%, with a career high of 27 points in a game against Maryland. And during his senior year, he was the Jerry D. Young Memorial Award winner for the Sun Belt Conference, an honor given to the outstanding student athlete for that conference.

What He’s Doing Now: He leads MAI Capital Management’s Sports + Entertainment Division and serves as a regional president at MAI.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: He learned an important lesson from his high school basketball coach, DeMatha Catholic High’s Morgan Wootten: “Use the game; don’t let the game use you.”

Trax took that to mean that he could use basketball to help him achieve other things in life, so at Old Dominion, he double majored in accounting and finance. He took his academics very seriously.

 “I use that concept and say it often to my young clients today who are athlete clients in terms of them using the game to their benefit—financially, relationship-wise and otherwise.”

Highlights from College Career:  Derek Bruton was a star player on his high school basketball team in Gilroy, Calif., when he got recruited to Stanford, alongside Todd Lichti, who turned out to be one of the top players in America. Bruton says that recruiting class, under Coach Tom Davis, changed the face of Stanford basketball; up until then, the school hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in 42 years.

“That’s what it takes in these college programs, is one recruiting class, one star player, to really turn around a program,” Bruton says.

During his junior year, the team made it to the NCAA tournament; in the first round, Stanford, a 3-seed school, was set to play against Siena College in New York, a 14-seed school. He and his teammates hadn’t even heard of Siena. To make a long story short, they underestimated their opponents. “I often call it the worst 24 hours of my life, because we landed in Greensboro, N.C., at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday evening, and by Thursday evening at 6 p.m. Pacific time, we were back on campus at Stanford, having been in one of the worst upsets ever in NCAA tournament history.”

After graduating from college, Bruton played professionally for two seasons in Japan.

What He’s Doing Now: Bruton, who stepped down as Kingswood U.S. CEO last June, is now at Gladstone Group, an executive search firm and M&A advisory for RIAs, asset managers, broker/dealers, fintech companies and institutions, as senior managing director. He leads Gladstone’s strategic growth consulting division and support the executive search and M&A advisory businesses as well. 

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “One is flat-out teamwork. I’ve never played an individual sport. I came into school as a top scorer out of high school, and I learned how to be a role-player on a team that had a very talented guy—Todd Lichti. They didn’t need another scorer. They needed somebody to rebound and play defense and block shots, and that was my role. In every organization, you’ve got people that play these important roles, and the magic comes when they work together. Two plus two equals five.”

“The other is to always respect your competition. I definitely learned that in 1989 against Siena, when we probably underestimated our competition. But having respect, understanding your competition, having respect for them no matter who they are, and knowing you’ve got to bring your best game each and every day is something that parlays into business.”

Highlights From College Career: During his freshman year at Coastal Carolina, Lawrence’s team made it to the championship game in their conference, which was the Big South at the time, but lost the opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament when the other team hit a last-second shot.

He played under coach Buzz Peterson, now assistant general manager for the Charlotte Hornets, who came over to CCU after being fired as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers. “He came to Coastal Carolina trying to make a statement, and that’s one of the reasons that I think that team was able to make it so far.” He recalls Peterson having them up at 5 a.m. some days for practice and not getting back to the dorm until 1 a.m. in the morning other days.

What He’s Doing Now: He’s a partner and financial advisor at Goldfinch Wealth Management in Greenville, S.C.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “You’re always going to have adversity. Things are never really going to go according to plan. The key is to be flexible enough to know that things are going to change and navigate those changes as they come. With markets, they’re going to go up and down; you can’t necessarily control the markets; you just kind of move with the market, making those small adjustments, trying to outperform, make those tactical strategic adjustments.”

Highlights From College Career: Halliday played for the College of Saint Rose, a Division II school, during his junior and senior years, after taking two years off to go on a church mission. In his junior year, the team made it to the Final Four of the Division II NCAA Tournament and made it to the Elite Eight his senior year.

“For me, playing basketball in college was really my only way to be able to go to college, cause I needed the scholarships to get my education,” he said.

He was a starter and an Academic All-American, meaning he maintained a 3.30 cumulative grade point average during that time. During those two years, the team lost just eight or nine games, he added.

What He’s Doing Now: He’s the founder and managing partner at Crewe Advisors, a fee-only independent RIA in Salt Lake City.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “The thing at Saint Rose—we may not have been the most talented individual players, but we were a real unified group. That translates really well into wealth management. It’s a relationship business; it’s team first, and it’s client first. Doing things the right way brings successful results, in my opinion—at least the way we do it.”

Highlights From College Career: Wyrick played at UNC Wilmington along with Aptus founder and CIO JD Gardner and John Goldsberry, who manages operations for the firm. He played with Goldsberry as freshmen, when their team won the conference title and then went on to the NCAA Tournament. But the team lost in the first round to Maryland, which made a buzzer-beater shot.

During his senior year, Gardner came in and played with them; they won the conference championship that year and went on to the tournament. They played George Washington in the first round of the tournament and lost. But the three have become lifelong friends and co-workers.

Fun Fact: Wyrick played for the Roger Bacon High School basketball team, the legendary Cincinnati team that handed LeBron James his only high school career loss. The team was recently featured on an ESPN documentary, “The Chosen Ones.”

“As LeBron’s legacy grows, our story that we get to tell our kids and eventually our grandkids only gets better,” he said.

What He’s Doing Now: He’s a portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, an investment management firm with $2 billion in assets under management. The firm supports advisors and wealth managers with active ETFs, managed portfolios and investment support.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “In the realm of sports, you get to learn a lot about people’s character—who’s willing to work hard, who’s willing to put the time in to get a task accomplished. A lot of the stuff that translates from being a good player and a good teammate—that is easily transferrable over to being a good co-worker and being a good employee or partner.”

Highlights From College Career: Goldsberry played alongside Wyrick and Gardner. During his freshman season, he earned Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie honors and set an NCAA Tournament record by hitting all eight of his 3-point shots during a game against Maryland.

His No. 3 jersey was retired and still hangs in the rafters of Trask Coliseum.

He also had a great professional career with the German League’s then-Brose Baskets in Bamberg for eight years.

What He’s Doing Now: He’s a facilitator and handles fund operations at Aptus Capital Advisors, an investment management firm with $2 billion in assets under management.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “It doesn't matter if it's basketball or investment management, the people you're surrounded by matters most. Aptus has been built with guys that grind; we have some really smart and talented individuals but what sets those individuals apart is their willingness to roll up their sleeves and do the work. It's no different in basketball, you need talent to win, but talent alone won't get the job done. 

Playing basketball is a whole lot easier than the business world. Both are extremely competitive but the mental energy required to succeed at business is drastically higher than trying to become a better basketball player each day. Not that playing basketball doesn't require mental toughness, it definitely does, but in business your focused energy typically has to change day to day and for myself that's sometimes difficult.”

Highlights From College Career: Gardner played for UNC Wilmington alongside Goldsberry and Wyrick during his freshman year. That was the year the team lost to George Washington University in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. He then went on to play for Wright State.

What He’s Doing Now: He founded Aptus Capital Advisors, an investment management firm with $2 billion in assets under management in Fairhope, Ala.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “It’s a very competitive environment—both inward and outward. You have to be sometimes careful with that, but you put a bunch of competitive people that want to be as good as they can be in a room, and that translates to deeper relationships because attention to detail is where it needs to be, translates to better messaging and more powerful communication, just because you’re trained to try to win. And when that’s the mentality, you’re not scared to work.”

Highlights From College Career: Falls finished his career as the top 3-point shooter for the Fighting Irish with 331 3-point field goals, in addition to becoming the Big East’s leading 3-point shooter with 189. He was the leading 3-point shooter for the Irish in three straight seasons.

After college, he went on to play professionally for the Orlandina Basket in Italy.

What He’s Doing Now: He’s the president of GeoWealth, a turnkey asset management platform for advisors.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: “Whether you are a sports team or a startup, the character of your team is always the foundation. Find like-minded teammates with shared alignment and dream big.”

Highlights From College Career: This three-time AP All-American owns the Fighting Irish record for career double-doubles with 64. Harangody is the only player in Notre Dame history to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds. In 2008, he was the Big East Conference Player of the Year. He was named to the all-Big East first team three times.

After college, he played in the NBA for the Boston Celtics and then the Cleveland Cavaliers. He then went on to play professionally in Europe.

What He’s Doing Now: He’s a trading specialist at GeoWealth.

Lessons Carried Over Into Wealth Management: Harangody said a great work ethic combined with attention to detail can propel your career. The team concept can also be powerful for your overall success, he said.