In recent years, most of the nation’s top college basketball coaches traveled to tiny Rice Lake, Wis., trying to persuade Henry Ellenson to join their programs. Kentucky’s John Calipari, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo were among those who showed up in the town of 8,000 to woo the 6-foot-10 Ellenson, a forward with guard skills.
Those programs would have given him plenty of national exposure, but Ellenson turned them all down and instead chose Marquette, which is 300 miles from Rice Lake.
That has not stopped him from drawing attention from all over the country.