WATCH: The moment the Utah Jazz selected Wisconsin basketball star John Tonje
JT is headed to UT 🏔️💜#TakeNote | #NBADraft pic.twitter.com/emrEmH2KTJ
After being selected in the second round of the 2025 NBA draft, former Wisconsin basketball star John Tonje will officially don NBA threads during the 2025-26 season.
On Thursday, the Utah Jazz selected the North Omaha, Nebraska, native with the 53rd overall pick of the draft. After six years of collegiate basketball with three different programs, Tonje becomes the first Badger to be drafted since 2022, joining lottery pick and former Big Ten Player of the Year Johnny Davis.
And, like his fellow 58 draftees, Tonje witnessed his dream materialize before his very eyes. On Thursday evening at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Deputy Commissioner of the NBA Mark Tatum uttered the words every aspiring professional hooper hopes to hear:
"With the 53rd pick of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz select John Tonje from the University of Wisconsin."
The AP Second-Team All-American and First-Team All-Big Ten team member certainly earned his position on the Jazz. In 37 appearances in 2024-25, Tonje averaged 19.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting a blistering 46.5% from the field, 39% from 3 and 91% from the free-throw line.
Tonje also recorded three 30+ point performances against top-10 opponents, including a 41-tally outburst against No. 9 Arizona in November, a 32-point explosion against No. 7 Purdue in February, and another 32-point barrage vs. No. 7 Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship semifinal in March. Tonje punctuated his collegiate career with 37 points in Wisconsin's NCAA Tournament Round of 32 loss against BYU. That outing gave him the program record for the most points in an NCAA Tournament game.
"Just had a great year at Wisconsin," ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas said on the broadcast. "John Tonje has a strong frame. He's tough, he's aggressive, [a] good shooter with a high release and a good driver. He's very good on the move, but it's his physicality, he just bullied his way to the free throw line over and over again this year. He made the most free throws of any player this last year in Division I basketball."
Tonje is one of three Jazz draftees alongside Rutgers forward Ace Bailey (No. 5 overall) and Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. (No. 18). He will join Johnny Juzang, Brice Sensabaugh, Kyle Filipowski, Keyonte George, Jordan Clarkson and Taylor Hendricks in Utah's second unit.
The Jazz will look to improve off a 17-65 finish during the 2024-25 season and secure its first playoff birth since 2022.
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