On the heels of a big junior campaign at De Pere (WI), and a breakout spring with the Wisconsin Playground Warriors, 6-4 guard Brevin Pritzl gave Bo Ryan and the University of Wisconsin a verbal commitment toward the end of May.
Pritzl, who already had some mid-major programs tracking him following last summer, averaged 20.9 points in the winter and earned First-Team All-State honors. But when he put his offensive arsenal on display in the spring, Xavier, Creighton, Marquette and the Badgers all offered.
He committed to his state school before that list of high-major offers could swell—not just because of civic pride, but due in large part to the track record the Badgers staff sports of developing players.
“I really liked Wisconsin because I’ve always been a Badger fan, and I like their academics a lot,” Pritzl said. “I know (Badger walk-on) Aaron Moesch, and just playing open gym with him I can see how much he’s developed. I can’t wait to see what they do with my game.”
Offensively, Pritzl possesses a quick, smooth and compact stroke on his shot and has been burning the nets from three-point land at each of the Playground Warriors’ stops on the club circuit. While he will most likely settle into a role spacing the court as a three-point threat once he arrives in Madison, he brings much more to that end of the court.
At the NY2LA Sports Next Level Invitational, which concluded Sunday, Pritzl also displayed a nice mid-range game by knocking down pull-ups off the bounce driving to his right as well as his left. But it’s not quite accurate to call his left his off-hand.
“When I was younger I was ambidextrous,” he said. “I can shoot left-handed, like a normal jump shot, because I’ve sprained my wrist a lot. I had to find a way to score so I’ve worked on that. I also used to go left a lot when I was post player when I was younger, so it’s always been there.”
The Playground Warriors advanced to the semifinals of the NY2LA Sports Next Level Invitational in suburban Milwaukee before the Milwaukee Spartans knocked them off. During pool play, Pritzl capped a 22-point performance against Minnesota Basketball Academy with a game-winning bucket with six seconds remaining in overtime to break a tie.
Though he can finish above the rim, he took what the defense gave him to keep his squad unbeaten up to that point.
“I had just scored by splitting a double (team) the play before,” said Pritzl, who dropped 30 in the tourney-opener. “So I figured if I could set (my defender) up, I might be able to find a different way to score. I went with a floater, which is surprising, because I don’t do that too often—but it came in handy when I needed it.”
Hundreds of college coaches fill the bleachers during the live evaluation periods in July across the country, and with the loaded NY2LA Sports Summer Jam tipping off Wednesday back in Milwaukee, the Badger-bound Pritzl is hoping he can continue playing at a high level so some of his teammates can get looks from Division I programs.
“To me, getting seen is all about winning because then you’ll play better teams,” Pritzl said. “So I try to get everybody else involved. Sure I hit that last shot, but we needed that to keep winning. So for me it’s all about winning so they can keep getting exposure.”
