Ignas Brazdeikis

Ignas "Iggy" Brazdeikis, the son of Diana and Sigitas Brazdeikis, was born in Kaunas, Lithuania in 1999. Brazdeikis comes from a family of athletes. His father was an amateur MMA fighter in Lithuania and his second aunt, Lina Brazdeikyte, is a former professional basketball player who won the EuroBasket Women 1997 with the Lithuania women's national team. After moving to Canada, Brazdeikis spent his high school years at Orangeville Prep in Ontario, Canada. He led the Orangeville team to two straight OSBA League Titles, averaging 30 points and 10 rebounds per game as a junior, before accounting for 28.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in his final year. He moved on to the University of Michigan, where he enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. You can follow Brazdeikis on Twitter and Instagram @_Iggy_braz. Iggy's name is pronounced IG-ness Brah'z-day-kiss. The Canadian-born Brazdeikis moved slightly south to play college basketball at Michigan for coach John Beilein. He spent just one season with the Wolverines, but the 6-7 forward established himself as a go-to scorer as a freshman. Brazdeikis led the Wolverines with 14.8 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. He hit 39.2 percent of his 3-pointers. He had ten 20-point games including two streaks of three games in a row. The forward also had three double-doubles, including 18 points and 11 rebounds in a win over Minnesota. Brazdeikis helped Michigan into the Big Ten Tournament final by averaging 15.7 points per tournament game. In what became his final collegiate game, during Michigan's NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game, Brazdeikis had 17 points and 13 rebounds in a loss to Texas Tech. Brazdeikis ended the season with numerous awards, including AP All-American honorable mention, All-Big Ten Second Team, Big Ten Freshman of the Year and All-Big Ten Tournament Team. Before Michigan, the forward represented Canada in international competition. He played in the 2015 FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship and averaged 9.2 points and 7.2 rebounds as Canada won the silver medal. He also had 14.7 points and 6.9 rebounds in the 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship.