MILWAUKEE – Patrick Baldwin Jr. has been selected by the Golden State Warriors with the 28^th pick in the first round of the 2022 National Basketball Association Draft held tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
 
Baldwin Jr. is the first draft pick for the Milwaukee men's basketball program in over 30 years and marks the first Horizon League student-athlete selected since Valparaiso's Alec Peters went in the second round of the 2017 NBA Draft to the Phoenix Suns.
 
The selection of PBJ by the 2022 World Champions also marks the first time a league player was picked in the first round since Cleveland State's Norris Cole in 2011. Baldwin Jr. is the 10^th Horizon League first-round selection in conference history and the highest-ever selection for the Panthers – as well as the first to come in the opening round.
 
Baldwin's only season with MKE was cut short after battling season-long health and injury issues, finishing the campaign with per-game averages of 12.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest in his 11 appearances.
 
He added to his resume quickly, becoming the first freshman in Milwaukee's DI history to record double-doubles in each of his first two appearances when he posted a team-high 21 points and 10 rebounds against North Dakota in the opener and 19 points and 11 rebounds against Eastern Kentucky in game two. He added a 26-point outburst against Robert Morris in early December, which included a perfect 6-for-6 showing from 3-point range.
 
He signed with the Panthers after playing at Hamilton Sussex High School and was a consensus five-star recruit and one of the highest-ranked players in the 2021 class. Baldwin was named the 2020 Gatorade Wisconsin Player of the Year after leading Hamilton to a 22-3 record while averaging 24.3 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Baldwin Jr. chose Milwaukee over a final Top 10 that consisted of Duke, Georgetown, Kentucky, Michigan, Northwestern, North Carolina, UCLA, Virginia, Wisconsin, and the Panthers.
 
Baldwin Jr. is the first Milwaukee player to be drafted since 1991 and the fifth in the all-time history of the program. The last to be drafted was Von McDade, selected No. 53 in the second round by the New Jersey Nets in the 1991 NBA Draft.
 
McDade is the only other Panther to be chosen in the program's NCAA Division I era (which started in 1990), with the other three coming in 1977 (Larry Pikes by the Milwaukee Bucks/eighth round), in 1971 (Vance Tyree by the Cleveland Cavaliers/16^th round), and back in 1961 (Ron Debillous by the New York Knicks/10^th round).