Brandin Podziemski one to watch in 2021
One of the hottest names in the Midwest is Brandin Podziemski.
A sharp shooting 6-foot-6 guard from the class of 2021 who is coming off of a junior season where he averaged 28 points, nine rebounds and four assists per game, Podziemski has seen his stock take off.
Slated to play this summer for Antonio Curro's Phenom University-Team Herro program in Nike's EYBL, Podziemski has now earned offers from Arizona State, Boise State, DePaul, Loyola (Chicago), Rice and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The work he shows on film and a push from his coaches has helped him to gain more notoriety with coaches.
"It really comes down to film and what they see and that they trust Tony, he sends my film out and it goes from there," Podziemski told Rivals.com. "My shooting ability, I can score at all three levels and I love to defend. I fill the boxscore with anything the team needs and I think they notice that big time. I just have that dog in me, I don't care who I'm going at I'm going at with them with everything I've got."
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Podziemski discussed some of his offers.
Arizona State: "(The offer) was cool. It is a great city and a great school. Arizona State was the most recent so we've talked about that most recently. I like the feel, the vibe that the city gives off. I've been watching them a little bit. They seem like a team that every year is on the border of making it somewhere. So I feel like with (Joshua Christopher) coming in this year they can take the next step and classes after that will continue it."
Boise State: "The family environment sticks out. We had a good zoom call with the whole coaching staff. They presented me with what they see in me and what they can see from me in their program. I really like that coaching staff and how they connect with me."
DePaul: "That was my first offer. It's big because they were the first team to take a chance on me and that saw something in me so that's always going to be a factor."
RIVALS' REACTION
Podziemski stressed that being on campus and seeing what it is like before making a decision would be very important to him. He even said that if it came down to it, he and his family would take vacations to see schools even if he can't schedule traditional visits due to Covid-19.
He doesn't yet have a timeline for making a decision and when it comes time to decide he'll weigh his desire to test himself at the highest level against playing time and fit.
"I think its a little bit of both," said Podziemski. "Personally to me it's more about fit because I want to go somewhere that I can fit into their system and get playing time. But at the same time me just being competitive I always want to play against the best. It's a mixture of both but I would say more fit because if you can't play, what's the point?"