De Pere basketball star Johnny Kinziger commits to Illinois State
Johnny Kinziger now can put all his focus on winning a state championship.
The De Pere basketball star secured his college future Friday, announcing his commitment to play at Illinois State.
He is the first Redbirds player to land an NCAA Division I scholarship since Brevin Pritzl committed to Wisconsin in May 2014 and the fifth overall since Brian Winchester was hired as coach in 2007.
The 6-foot Kinziger received an offer from Illinois State last Thursday and was offered by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay one week later.
The point guard didn’t take long to decide, and he didn’t have much interest in prolonging his recruiting process.
Illinois State, located in Normal, was the place for him.
The team went 13-20 last season, including 5-13 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
“I’m really excited,” Kinziger said. “When I went and visited this place, I didn’t have any negatives. It was all positive. Thinking about it, I just realized this was the best option for me. Great coaches, great system, great facilities. The school in general is just great.
“I wanted to jump on it and commit. Now there is no pressures on me. It’s just to go and win the state championship, you know? I’m just relieved, I guess you could say.”
Kinziger’s first DI offer arrived months before his sophomore season, when Toledo came calling.
But there were no other offers before the one from Illinois State, despite Kinziger developing into one of the best players in the state.
He entered last season near the top of the overall prospect rankings for the 2023 class, alongside players such as Pewaukee forward Milan Momcilovic, Brillion forward Jeremy Lorenz and Neenah point guard Cal Klesmit.
Kinziger averaged 21 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 2021-22. He was a first-team all-conference selection in the Fox River Classic for the third straight season and a Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association all-state pick for the second consecutive year.
De Pere went 25-3 and won the FRCC, but it fell one win short of the WIAA Division 1 state tournament after a 74-70 loss to Menomonee Falls in a sectional championship.
There was so much coming at Kinziger all at once, from attempting to get his team to state for the first time since 2011 to worrying about his future.
The Toledo offer had come so early in the process that he was unsure what level of interest he had in the program and what level of interest it still had in him.
“It was kind of like, I want to be this Division I player, but I also want to help our high school team to a state championship,” Kinziger said. “There was quite a bit of pressure on my shoulders for both of those reasons. I feel like now with being committed and having a place to go after high school, I will be able to relax a little bit and just focus on strictly winning a state championship and making memories with my friends.”
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Kinziger is in line to shatter Pritzl’s program record for career points, which stands at 1,720. He will enter his senior season with 1,570 and has scored more than 585 points in each of his last two seasons.
Perhaps the biggest surprise to some might be how late UWGB entered the mix for a player in its own backyard, even more so considering Phoenix assistant Brandon Pritzl also had a decorated prep career at De Pere before graduating in 2010.
Kinziger at least was intrigued by the possibility of playing in his hometown, but the relationships he built with the coaches at Illinois State were too strong for him to pass on.
He visited UWGB’s campus the same day he received his offer – his younger brother, Zach, also got an offer from the Phoenix – and it put a “little wrench” in his thought process, but his heart still was with Illinois State.
Kinziger said the Phoenix staff was “here and there” when it came to recruiting him, and he liked the assistant coaches trio of Pritzl, Jared Swanson and Freddie Owens.
He was asked if he was insulted that the team hadn’t been in on him the whole time.
“I don’t think I was insulted, because I thought highly about all the coaches on that team,” Kinziger said. “I just thought it was kind of odd that they didn’t offer me sooner, but at the end of the day you don’t know what happens behind the doors. How many scholarships they have or what is going on with their players.
“I kind of always kept that in mind, and I talked to (UWGB) Coach (Will) Ryan early in the year. They had different things happen with their scholarships, so I understood that. I wasn’t really frustrated. It was just odd to me.”
Kinziger has the ability to both drive to the basket and hit shots from the perimeter. He has shot 51.9% or better each year and 42.2% or better from 3-point range.
He has shot 53% overall, 44.9% from 3 and 85.3% from the line during his three-year varsity career.
But that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop working. He always can find something to improve.
“Learning to become a true point guard and a true leader,” Kinziger said. “A true point guard is someone who, when their team needs a stop, will get them fired up. They will get his teammates in the right position for a good shot. When things go wrong, he’s able to bring the team together and kind of lift them back up.
“In order for you to get back on track, you have to become positive. If you have a negative outlook, things are going to get worse. That’s what I’m really trying to work on.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: De Pere basketball star Johnny Kinziger commits to Illinois State
