Big man Andrew Bogut lifts lid on Utah recruitment

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Australia's best big man of all-time in Andrew Bogut has lifted the lid on how he ended up at the University of Utah more than two decades ago, sparking an NBA championship career and an influx of Aussies into the best league in the world.

Speaking on the Jeff Gross Podcast with professional poker player and streamer Jeff Gross, Bogut recalled how he was plucked out of Australia and into college basketball by a Utah assistant coach and why he chose the school over a "big-time party school".

Bogut attended the University of Utah from 2003-2005, winning numerous awards in his freshman season, including CollegeInsider.com All-Freshman Team honours and Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year before leading his team to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in 2005, where he led the country in double-doubles.

The 7'0" Melbourne product would then go on to become the No.1 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks before winning a title with the Golden State Warriors in 2015 and being a leader of the golden generation of Australian Boomers program.

"Back then, Australia wasn't the hotbed it is today for basketball players going not only to college but the NBA," Bogut said on the Jeff Gross Podcast.

"We didn't even have an NBA player in the league at that time when I went to college from Australia.

"Then, I guess, Utah came in, an assistant coach saw me, the rest was history. They recruited me from day dot.

"I didn't want to go to a big-time party school that I saw in the movies. I wanted to go somewhere where I'm kind of concentrating on what I should be concentrating on, and that was basketball.

"I make a joke that people ask, like, what did you study, and I said basketball.

"That was one, two, and three for me, but basketball was my goal, and I thought Utah, it worked perfectly strategically for me."

Utah was the kickstart Bogut needed for his professional career, where only a horrific injury kept him from being an NBA All-Star.

The now Sydney Kings championship assistant coach was then part of a three-year run where the team who won the NBA championship featured an Australian.

From Patty Mills and Aron Baynes with the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, to Bogut in 2015 and then followed by Matthew Dellavedova with the Cleveland Cavaliers over Bogut's Warriors in 2016.

Injuries forced Bogut to retire before Australia's historic run to an Olympic bronze medal in 2021 but the big man played a key role in the program's return to relevancy, which included two fourth-placed finishes at the 2016 Olympic Games and 2019 FIBA World Cup.