A one-time Kentucky recruiting target ended up taking a strange path to the NBA Draft

Brandin Podziemski has emerged as one of the buzziest names in the 2023 NBA Draft class.

Under different circumstances — in an alternative basketball universe, perhaps — he might have been a Kentucky Wildcat first.

Podziemski’s unconventional path to the NBA began in his hometown of Greenfield, Wis., where he earned the reputation as one of the most talented high school players in the Milwaukee area, but — due to the moment in time in which his game took off — struggled to find the kind of national recognition he might have otherwise received.

The recruiting ascension of Podziemski started amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when college coaches were still banned from seeing prospects play, high school players weren’t allowed to visit university campuses, and the typically nonstop nature of summer showcases had ground to a halt.

When Kentucky and Kansas both came through with scholarship offers in October 2020 — the beginning of Podziemski’s senior season — the reaction was one of universal bewilderment.

Who, exactly, was this kid? And how serious were the blue bloods in their pursuit of him?

Thanks to the COVID-related college basketball recruiting restrictions that continued for the next several months, those questions were never fully answered.

At the time of those UK and KU offers, Podziemski was coming off a junior season in which he averaged 27.6 points per game. In normal times, the spring and summer that followed that campaign would have been filled with opportunities to prove himself against the top competition in his class — all in front of the watchful eyes of coaches like John Calipari and Bill Self.

Podziemski never got the chance. The highest-profile summer events that year were canceled. Coaches weren’t permitted to attend the showcases that did go on. And, so, a month after landing Kentucky and Kansas offers, Podziemski was still slotted as the No. 272 overall recruit in the 2021 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

He was even better as a high school senior, but no coaches were able to see him in person. Podziemski averaged 35.1 points, 10.0 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 4.0 steals per game and shot 43.4 percent from three-point range, leading the state in made three-pointers. He was the Wisconsin player of the year. His game tape was widely watched and scrutinized, but it was clear that big-name schools still didn’t quite know what to make of him. Was he really 6-5, his listed height? Was he athletic enough to hang with the best of college basketball? Could his defense play at the highest level? And how good (or bad) was his high school competition? Nobody really knew.

Outside observers wondered if the big-time public offers were more the product of Podziemski’s ties — he played for a high-profile club in Wisconsin, the travel alma mater of Tyler Herro — and an effort by those coaches to help get him more looks, rather than genuine blue-blood interest.

At the same time, Podziemski was flying blind through the recruiting process as a 17-year-old kid. How can you make the life-changing decision of picking a college when you can’t even visit the school, or meet the coaches face to face?

“It was definitely challenging,” Podziemski told the Herald-Leader at the NBA Draft Combine last week. “Because you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, really. You just kind of base it off the relationships, the phone calls and the Zooms. And it can be kind of tough when you’re 17, turning 18, and you’ve gotta make big-boy decisions. So, I think it was definitely challenging, but I’m obviously thankful for where I am right now.”

Podziemski did say that Calipari and then-UK assistant Joel Justus were “super involved” in his recruitment, with both coaches holding multiple Zoom meetings with the player. He also teased a possible alternative history to his recruitment.

“Obviously, I couldn’t take a visit (to Kentucky) because of COVID, which kind of stinks, because I think maybe it would have swayed my decision one way or the other,” he said. “I chose Illinois, ultimately, just because it was closest to home.”

Kentucky made Podziemski’s final five in February of his senior year — even then, there were questions over whether he had a committable offer from the Cats — but he ended up picking Illinois a couple of months later.

Podziemski finished the 2021 cycle as the No. 107 overall recruit in the class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. In his freshman year at Illinois, he averaged 1.4 points and 0.9 rebounds, playing just 4.3 minutes in only 16 games. Those stats seemingly confirmed the skeptics’ doubts that he could play at the highest level.

With Podziemski, looks can be deceiving.

After that flop of a season at Illinois, he transferred to Santa Clara, coached by Herb Sendek, one of Rick Pitino’s top assistants at the beginning of his time at Kentucky. (Podziemski noted his visit there while in the transfer portal was actually the first recruiting trip of his basketball career.)

Midway through his sophomore year of college, the buzz was starting to grow. By the end, Podziemski had averaged 19.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, the only player in the West Coast Conference to finish top five in all three categories (while leading the league in boards as a 6-5 guard and tying for second in steals). And he shot 43.8 percent from three, supplementing that skill with an elite floater game closer to the basket. And now, he’s a legitimate NBA Draft prospect.

“It’s just opportunity, really,” he said before offering up his advice to current and future transfers. “Wherever you’re wanted and you can get the most opportunity — that’s where I’d go. And Santa Clara did a great job of just letting me be me. … But it’s all about opportunity and putting in the work, and it’s always going to shine at the end of the day. You can’t hide it.”

Podziemski and the NBA

Going into the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago last week, Podziemski was widely projected as a mid-second round pick, with ESPN slotting him at No. 37 overall, The Sporting News projecting him as the No. 43 player in the draft, and The Athletic placing him at No. 47 in its mock draft.

Based on his showing there, that stock remains on the rise.

The Bleacher Report included Podziemski as one of the biggest gainers out of combine week. ESPN bumped him up to No. 31 following his time in Chicago, and Podziemski told the Herald-Leader that after his first performance — 10 points, eight rebounds and eight assists with zero turnovers in a do-it-all effort — his agents were hearing that the middle of the first round was a realistic draft zone. It didn’t hurt that his measurements backed up his listed height, he buried 18 of 25 threes in the organized shooting drill, and he showed off a 39-inch maximum vertical leap, tied for sixth-best among the combine invitees.

That last number, in particular, raised eyebrows.

“I don’t think I was surprised,” Podziemski said. “I’m kind of confused. People are like, ‘Oh, he’s not athletic, because he doesn’t always dunk on people’ or something like that. But I think when I need to use my athleticism, I use it. And I think I’m an NBA athlete.”

Podziemski was one of the top-rated players to actually take part in the five-on-five games. Most of the invitees — including Kentucky’s Chris Livingston, who isn’t widely projected as a draft pick — opted out of the scrimmages, in most cases to protect their current status.

That was never an option for Podziemski.

“I’m just trying to prove that I can be a lottery pick in this draft,” he said. “That I’m good enough to play with anybody in the draft. I selfishly wish that they would make everybody play in this, just to show the best guys can play. But I think I did my thing.”

After his stellar first game at the combine — amid feedback that his stock had already increased dramatically — there was talk he would opt out of the second. He played anyway.

“I told my agent that I want to play,” he said. “Because I’m a competitor.”

Obviously, the 20-year-old doesn’t lack for confidence.

Perhaps Podziemski will be a household name in the NBA for years to come. If that happens, Kentucky fans aware of his backstory will surely wonder what could have been, under different circumstances.

It’s quite possible — perhaps probable — that a freshman year under Calipari at UK would have looked basically the same as his first season with Illinois: a frustrating campaign marked by a lack of playing time, while more highly touted players received the majority of the run. And, under that scenario, Podziemski probably would have been a one-and-done transfer anyway.

Or maybe he would have received a chance — and taken advantage of it — for a team that lost CJ Fredrick on the first night of the season, endured nagging injuries to backcourt starters Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington and was forced to rely heavily on an also-hurting Kellan Grady down the stretch.

We’ll never know how it would have worked out at Kentucky.

But, it’s quite clear now, things have worked out just fine for Podziemski.

A month from now, he’ll hear his name called on NBA Draft night, seemingly an impossibility at this time last year, when he decided a change of scenery was the key to his basketball future.

And in that past year, he’s answered all of those questions that date back to his recruitment.

“I can play on or off the ball. I think I can be efficient both ways,” he said. “But at the next level, I envision myself as more of a point guard. I enjoy getting my teammates involved more than I enjoy scoring. That probably sounds funny to say, but I do. And, you know, I just bring all the intangibles to the table. Playing hard is non-negotiable for me.

“So just doing all of that stuff — putting it all together — I think I’m an NBA-ready player.”

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