Baldwin Jr. hopes to lead UW-Milwaukee to big basketball season
MILWAUKEE — The UW-Milwaukee Panthers kick off their season on Oct. 30 in an exhibition game against the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and they have a lot to be proud about this upcoming year.
Freshman guard Patrick Baldwin Jr. from Sussex, Wisconsin is nominated for the 2022 Julius Erving Award, an award that recognizes 20 small forwards in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates.
“With the new season on the horizon, we could not be more excited to watch the stars of the collegiate game take the floor and do what they do best,” John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Basketball Hall of Fame, said.
In late January, the watch list of 20 players for the 2022 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award will be narrowed to 10 and then in late February to just five. In March the five finalists will be presented to Mr. Erving and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee, where a winner will be selected.
The Panthers are hopeful it will be Baldwin Jr. He could have chosen Duke and played for Coach K, Or even traveled to North Carolina and played at the college that Hall of Famer Michael Jordan went to with UNC.
One of the power schools in his home state, the University of Wisconsin, even gave him an offer. As a five-star recruit, Baldwin Jr. could have played in a lot of places. Baldwin Jr.’s Twitter account, @_pbaldwin23, is filled with all the offers he has received from big schools across the nation. Instead, he opted to play with a mid-major UW-Milwaukee team, not even a Power 5 conference program.
Baldwin Jr. is in the Horizon League, and has chosen to play for his father, Patrick Baldwin Sr. That really matters a lot to Baldwin Jr.
“I know he knows what it takes to get the best out of me,” Baldwin Jr. said in an interview with Brian Hamilton of The Athletic. “Putting in the work so I can show out and really show what mid-major basketball is about, it’s more about giving something to college basketball and leaving your mark than anything I can take from it. There aren’t many coaches’ sons that are able to come through college basketball. And then you’ve seen some of the performances they’ve put been able to put on, and some of the teams they’ve produced. When you have chemistry like that between a coach, that’s something, that’s something that’s been brewing for about 18 years, it can put together some really magical teams.”
The UW-Milwaukee Panthers might not play Duke or UNC and get the recognition that comes from playing those teams. But they do have their own big out-of-conference games to prepare for.
“When we go and play Florida when we go and play Colorado, both of those games are going to be extreme. It’s going to test our will, it’s going to test our toughness,” Coach Baldwin said on the UWM men’s basketball Twitter page, @MKE_MBB.
As much hype as there is around five-star recruit Baldwin Jr, the UW-Milwaukee Panthers will still have to play who is in front of them and win enough games to make it to March Madness where the eyes are on you, and where stars shine and catch the eyes of NBA scouts.
Winning the Horizon League and making it to March Madness while Baldwin Jr. gets a chance to help the team win and promote himself all is a win-win in a hopefully magical UW-Milwaukee Panthers season.
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