Two things about Brandin Podziemski can be true at once

Plenty of takes have been written about Brandin Podziemski’s short time with the Illini during the 2021-22 basketball season, as well as his current success in the NBA. These discussions almost always lean into a certain series of questions: What prompted him to leave? Why didn’t he play more while he was here? What would last season have looked like had he stuck around? This isn’t unique to Podz, and we’ll probably be asking the same questions again this spring when Zacharie Perrin is likely taken in the 2024 NBA Draft. (Remember him?)

The truth is that we’ll probably never know the answers to many of those questions. Maybe Illinois goes to the Final Four last season if he stays, or maybe he would’ve continued to sit since it was his experience at Santa Clara that gave him what he needed to develop his game and thrive. We’ll likely never know for sure.

That hasn’t stopped people on Twitter/X from speaking with what I would consider to be an unwarranted amount…