After a busy summer of basketball, including a stint with the Utah Jazz summer league team, former UW-Madison men's basketball star Mike Wilkinson has signed a contract to play for the Aris B.S.A. Basketball Club, based in Thessaloniki, Greece.
\Mr. Fundamental"" joins the A1 League, the top league in Greece, as well as Euroleague competition. He will be going from one winning program to another- Aris has made its way to the last three Greek Cup finals, taking home the championship in 2004. They also took home the FIBA Champions' Cup in 2003. He joins six other first-year players for Aris.
Wilkinson played for the Utah Jazz in the Rocky Mountain Revue, an NBA summer league that ran July 15-22. He sparred with several former college elites vying for a spot on an NBA team, including the former North Carolina trio of Marvin Williams, Sean May and Raymond Felton, who helped orchestrate the defeat of the Badgers in last season's NCAA Tournament. In 14.7 minutes per game, he averaged 4.8 points and 2.7 rebounds, shooting a cool 45 percent from the field. His best game came in the sixth and final game, where he posted 10 points and 6 rebounds in 22 minutes of action.
The 6'8"" power forward boasts quite a resum?? entering his season in Greece. Wilkinson has earned first-team all-Big Ten honors the last three years, including a consensus first-team pick last season. He is one of two players in Badger history to have 1,500 points and 800 rebounds in his career, and finished in the top 10 in nine other UW career lists. Wilkinson is regarded as one of the smartest players to play for the Badgers, and will surely leave his mark at some level of professional basketball.
