'Too many implications': Paxson and Doug Wojcik to clash in NCAAT second round

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the last 15 years, the Wojciks have run a bracket pool within their family. Paxson typically doesn’t do very well, his bracket getting busted one way or another every March.

When this year’s NCAA tournament bracket was released, though, and the family saw who UNC could potentially play in the second round, they decided to end the tradition.

“The second round matchup has too many implications,” the graduate guard said.

On Saturday, when UNC takes on Michigan State, there will be a Wojcik on either sideline — Paxson in Carolina Blue and his father, MSU assistant coach Doug Wojcik, in Spartan green. It’s a matchup that the two have seen before, with Paxson’s Brown University Bears traveling to East Lansing last season.

“The spotlight's a little bit bigger,” Doug said. “But I'm not going to dwell on it too much other than look at the positives.”

Paxson’s earliest basketball memories with his dad go back to hanging around in the locker room with his father’s teams. Doug has eight years of coaching experience at Michigan State, and whenever the Spartans went to the Final Four — like in 2005 — Paxson traveled with the team, hanging out with the players and the coaches. He even regularly attended summer camps as a kid at Michigan State.

The Izzos and the Wojciks are family friends. Steven Izzo, graduate guard at Michigan State, was one of Paxson’s best friends growing up. The two went to preschool together, and Paxson recalls shooting hoops with Steven at the Breslin Center at a young age.

“At any given moment, Lupe Izzo had three blonde kids, or I had three towheads,” Paxson’s mom, Lael, said. “So Steven was kind of like a cousin.”

Despite Doug’s busy schedule, which includes over 30 years of college basketball coaching experience, Paxson credited his dad for showing up to his games as often as he could. All the way back to when Paxson played high school ball at La Lumiere School in Indiana, his dad would find ways to make the long drives — leaving right after practice ended in order to see his son play.

In the transfer portal this offseason, Paxson said he considered Michigan State. But he and his family decided that he wanted to carve his own path in Chapel Hill. 

“It certainly would have been an attractive option, and from training there in the summers, he knows all those guys and is friends with all those guys,” Lael said. “But I think he's always kind of done his own thing and made it on his own.”

His dad was an assistant under former UNC head coach Matt Doherty from 2000-03 and was involved in the transfer process for Paxson. The two went to dinner with senior guard RJ Davis during his official visit last March, and came down to Charlotte back in August to tailgate with the team before the North Carolina-South Carolina football game. Paxson said he has pictures of him on the floor of the Dean E. Smith Center when his dad was an assistant at UNC, but said he has no memories of being in Chapel Hill. 

While there will certainly be emotions tomorrow between the two, Paxson knows that once the game starts, it will be all business.

“There's a viral clip of him last year crying when the starting lineups were announced that a lot of people saw,” Paxson said. “So I think he might have to control his emotions a little better than I do. But like you said, it's just another game once that ball is tipped and he's going to be doing everything that he can to help his team win, and I'm going to be doing the same.”

Paxson recognized that the scouting will be different for Saturday’s game because of the familiarity between the two programs. He said that he played pickup with the Spartans over the summer and has played in pro-ams with them up in Michigan. For Doug, he helped scout Paxson, identifying him as UNC’s ninth man and someone that can feed the post and shoot from behind the arc.

The Wojcik family, though, will be a winner regardless of Saturday’s result. With Lael caring for her other son, Denham — who is a junior guard for Harvard and recently underwent hip impingement surgery — she will not be able to attend the game in person. She said she will be wearing both a Michigan State and UNC pendant on her neck, but she will be rooting for Paxson to get the opportunity to play for a Final Four.

Doug said he hopes Saturday’s game is Paxson’s last as a collegiate basketball player, but he will be happy no matter who comes out on top.

“On the good side," Doug said, "either way you look at it, I'll be in LA next weekend."

@brendan_lunga18

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