Frank Kaminsky is the star of Wisconsin's Final Four team. It would be easy to look at him, and think he is good because he is 7'0". But he is a great story about the value of perseverance
Frank entered Lisle Benet closer to six foot than seven foot. He started out playing some point guard. According to Bo Ryan, Frank had trouble even getting on the court for his AAU team between his sophomore and junior year.
In this day of McDonald's All-Americans, ESPN Top 100 recruits, and Rivals,com evaluations. Frank did not show up on their lists after his junior year. He received offers from Bradley, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois, DePaul, Northwestern, and Wisconsin. He chose to sign with Wisconsin. (Note he was not offered by Illinois.)
Although he went on to be first team All-State, he was considered by Scout.com at a 3-star prospect-- kind of middle of the road prospect.
His freshmen year, he averaged only 7 minutes per game. And his minutes only bounced up to 10 minutes per game as a sophomore.
As a sophomore, he shot 43% from the field, 31% for threes and averaged 4ppg with less than 1 rebound per game. From all accounts, he did not mope about minutes or just talk about wanting to play-- he just kept working.
As a junior his minutes jumped to 27 per game, field goals to 53%, threes to 38% to produce 14ppg with 6 reb/game.
It is easy for a player to get discouraged when their goals seem unreachable. It is easy to just focus on the coach or others. It is hard to just keep working. But obviously, the players who can just keep working are the ones who do reach their goals.
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