Twenty-five people, friends and family alike, sat alongside former Northwestern guard Brooks Barnhizer in Lafayette, Ind., awaiting to see if he would be selected in the 2025 NBA Draft. Halfway through the second round, Barnhizer's phone rang. On the other end was his agent, who informed him that he would be selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 44th pick.
Four summers earlier, Barnhizer came to Evanston as an under-recruited, three-star prospect. He rarely touched the floor during his freshman campaign, but his grittiness and two-way talent led him to become one of the Big Ten's most valuable players in just years' time, helping Northwestern reach back-to-back NCAA tournaments for the first time in program history.
The Champions get a Winner ??@BrooksBarnhizer is going to OKC. pic.twitter.com/wzdyTCwMA5
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) June 27, 2025
"He had no Big Ten offers other than Northwestern," Sullivan-Ubben Head Men's Basketball Coach Chris Collins told 670 The Score's Mike Mulligan and David Haugh. "He came in, he worked his tail off. Every year, he got better. It felt like our coaches did a really good job player development-wise, his body, his strength and conditioning, to now being the 44th pick in the NBA draft."
Barnhizer's toughness stood out to the Thunder when the organization's general manager Sam Presti entered Welsh-Ryan Arena to scout another player. Yet his eyes continued to roam to the disruptive, active nature of Barnhizer. From that point on, the team continued to keep tabs on him.
A broken foot cut Barnhizer's senior campaign short, but after he was cleared for full basketball activities on May 15, he worked out for 16 teams across the league. He ended up where it all started, with the team that worked him out first: Oklahoma City.
"It's just fate," Barnhizer said in his introductory press conference on June 28. "Whatever is supposed to happen will happen, and I ended up here, and I think that's for a reason."
The Thunder are coming off a 2025 NBA championship after a 68-win regular season and posting the league's best defensive rating. During the 2020-21 season, Oklahoma City posted just 22 wins, one of the league's worst marks. They dug themselves out of the bottom of the league's standings through a culture of hard-nosed defense and teamwork.
Presti said that those calling cards particularly stood out with Barnhizer, where he praised Barnhizer's team-first mindset and physicality.
"They really valued who I am as a player and my strengths that stick out because it really fits the culture and kind of what we're trying to do," Barnhizer said.
During his junior year, Barnhizer was named to the Big Ten All-Defense Team. Wildcat fans became used to constant defensive highlights from the 6-foot-6 guard. He flew around the court on the defensive side of the ball, whether he was picking off passing lanes that led to highlight dunks or registering on-ball steals.
For that reason, Barnhizer is excited to learn from elite defensive veteran guards like Alex Caruso and Luguentz Dort. Both Caruso and Dort have been named to the NBA's All-Defensive First Team in their careers, with Caruso doing so in 2023 with the Chicago Bulls and Dort doing so this past season.
"Guys like Caruso and Lu Dort, those are guys I would love to be in the gym with and honestly just be kind of a sponge to," Barnhizer said. "Pick their brain and see, 'How do you guard these things?', or 'What should I do in these situations?'"
?Pressure itself is a privilege.? pic.twitter.com/Jb2rXesx1y
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 28, 2025
Both players proved to be incredible success stories, rising from being undrafted to staples of one of the most dominant NBA teams in recent memory. Barnhizer said he feels he is "cut from the same cloth" as those two players.
Oklahoma City's championship roster featured a flurry of second-round picks, including Isaiah Hartenstein, Aaron Wiggins, Isaiah Joe, and Jaylin Williams.
"(Brooks has) just similar characteristics and qualities to a lot of the guys who have been successful here, that have had that path — second round picks, a lot of undrafted players through here that are hardworking," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. "They're professional, they're committed, they're team-first, they play both ends of the floor. And he's cut from that cloth as he mentioned."
After years of learning how to play hard and gritty on Chicago's North Shore, Barnhizer will embrace those same characteristics almost 700 miles southwest.
"It was a match made in heaven that I ended up in a place like Oklahoma City," Barnhizer said.