“With the 44th pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the Oklahoma City Thunder select Brooks Barnhizer, from Northwestern University.”
As those fateful words escaped NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum’s lips, Northwestern ended its 26-year-long drought for a player to hear his name called on draft night, dating back to former center Evan Eschmeyer’s second-round selection by the New Jersey Nets in 1999.
Barnhizer, whose four-year career in purple digs was defined by relentless hustle, unprecedented stat-sheet stuffing and two March Madness appearances — but was cut agonizingly short by a season-ending foot injury midway through his senior campaign — has now carved a pathway to NBA minutes.
Barnhizer had participated in workouts with the Denver Nuggets, Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers in the build-up to the draft, according to reports by team beat writers.
Still, the 23-year-old guard’s chances of draft selection remained uncertain entering Thursday. He appeared as a late second-round pick in The Athletic’s final mock draft, though he stood firmly outside draft range in ESPN’s last big board at 77th overall.
But as the night’s proceedings edged toward the middle of the second round, the newly-minted NBA champions Thunder swooped in to take Barnhizer off the board earlier than projected.
The Thunder defeated the Indiana Pacers in a decisive Game 7 Sunday to claim the franchise’s first title since moving to Oklahoma City in 2008.
Barnhizer will team up with a dominant young core that led Oklahoma City to a 68-14 regular season record and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, including reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“Let’s run it OKC!!!!!” Barnhizer posted on X following the pick.
Last year, the NU captain averaged 17.1 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.3 steals per game in a season bookended by injuries. From Nov. 29 to Jan. 2, Barnhizer posted seven consecutive double-doubles, the longest streak in program history since at least 1996.
Despite appearing in just 17 games, the Lafayette, Indiana, native was named an All-Big Ten Team honorable mention by the media.
Barnhizer missed the first four games of the 2024-25 season with a foot injury before sustaining a separate foot injury on Jan. 12 against Michigan State. He played through the latter injury for five games, before coach Chris Collins shut him down for the remainder of the season in a tearful postgame press conference following a Feb. 1 loss to Wisconsin.
“He had set everything up to have this be the best year yet, to lead this program and to take us to new heights,” Collins said after that loss. “To have the injuries derail that, it’s unfair.”
Barnhizer’s disrupted senior season came off the back of a breakout 2024 campaign in which he played a crucial part in NU’s push for a second consecutive trip to March Madness.
In a moment already enshrined in Wildcat basketball history, Barnhizer scurried to the rim and converted a game-tying layup in the dying seconds against Florida Atlantic in the first round of the 2024 NCAA tournament. The shot precipitated an early NU overtime flurry, propelling the program to its third-ever second-round matchup — where the ’Cats fell to eventual champion UConn.
In 2024, Barnhizer started all 34 games and posted averages of 14.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.8 steals per game en route to an All-Big Ten Third Team selection and Big Ten All-Defensive Team honors.
Throughout his time in Evanston, Barnhizer exemplified the ‘Cats’ gritty style of play, at one point knocking out his two front teeth in practice and requiring an emergency bone graft. He played through the pain with a temporary bridge, but took a shot to the mouth against Purdue Jan. 5 and broke that bridge, too.
“He immerses himself in competition, immerses himself in the game. He’s a warrior,” Collins said. “We don’t get to where we are now without Brooks Barnhizer and what he’s done the past three years.”
Henry Frieman contributed reporting.
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