Pat Suemnick has scored a career high in points in three of his last four games. However, if you ask Suemnick, basketball is the last sport he thought he’d end up playing and his focus is on things that take place off the hardwood.
Growing up in Wisconsin, Pat Suemnick always excelled at basketball. But baseball was more of his sport early on in high school.
“I thought I was going to be a baseball or football player and then I just kept growing,” Suemnick said.
Suemnick went to Denmark High School, where he played football, baseball, and basketball. Suemnick said he was throwing at least 90 miles per hour in high school, but as he got taller, basketball seemed more realistic.
“My dad is 6-foot, my mom is 5-foot-7. I didn’t expect to be 6-foot-8. I kind of just played everything,” Suemnick said. “I never really pictured playing in the Big 12 as a kid. As I kept growing, got to be like a 6-foot-4 freshman in high school, I was like, man, I should probably start playing some basketball, maybe I can get my school paid for.”
Suemnick would end his senior year in high school averaging 19.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in his final season. That year, Suemnick’s squad went to the state championship game, ultimately falling short. For him though, making that game helped him get noticed by several schools.
“I didn’t have a single offer in high school until we made it to state. No one’s watching us. Unless you’re successful, unless you’re making it. I was a 6-foot-8 kid, averaging three dunks a game. I had a game with 20 rebounds but no one’s recruiting me, just because the area we’re in,” Suemnick said.
From there, Suemnick attended prep school, going to the Bosco Institute in Crown Point, Indiana. In one season there he averaged 14.7 points and 7.3 rebounds, getting him looks by many high major Division I programs. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and the offers and contacts went away with it.
“I was having a whole bunch of schools interested,” Suemnick said. “COVID hit, we never got to finish our season, and the schools were like, ‘COVID is going to be gone in a month, you’ll just take the visit after.’ Obviously that didn’t happen. Ended up losing all the big schools I thought I was going to end up going to.”
With that, Robert Morris continued to contact Suemnick. He never stepped foot on their campus and didn’t take a visit before committing.
Suemnick played in 16 games in his one season at Robert Morris but didn’t see the floor much during his time there. He decided to leave RMU, and received heavy amounts of interest once again. This time for Suemnick, he went back to junior college, before coming to the type of place he thought he would have ended up all along.
Now in his second year with WVU, Suemnick has started to see his role expand. Some of it was not supposed to happen as Jesse Edwards went down with an injury. Suemnick got his first start on Dec. 30 against Ohio State.
He scored two late buckets to help send that game to overtime and has been playing with a increased amounts of confidence ever since then.
“When they are playing better you can tell. You can tell that they’re carrying themselves differently, they’re carrying themselves with a lot more moxie and confidence,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “That’s starting to help his mentality each and every day in practice and hopefully it continues to snowball in that direction.”
Suemnick was a big reason why West Virginia beat No. 25 Texas this past Saturday, and if the Mountaineers are going to have success the rest of this season, he will have to continue to be a difference maker.
For Suemnick though, he recognizes life is more important than basketball. Suemnick has loftier goals off the court. Suemnick knows many recognize him as “No. 24 Pat Suemnick on Mountaineer Basketball,” but he says he knows there are things bigger than sports.
“There’s a lot more behind the scenes. I’m big into neuroscience and listening to ted talks and planning things that are a little bit bigger than sports for my life. I’m always trying to promote being more than just an athlete,” Suemnick said.
Suemnick said he doesn’t have a set career path. He had to recently change his major to fit the basketball portion of being a student-athlete.
“It’s not really set up for you to be a neuroscience major and a basketball player,” Suemnick said. “I’ve just been trying to take as much classes as I can that I’m interested in but keep basketball as the main thing.”
Suemnick hitting his stride on the court is no accident. He has somewhat waited his turn behind multiple big men over the last few seasons. He was thrust into a role that took him time to settle into. For him though, it goes deeper than basketball. While he may be slamming home dunks against the Longhorns, he still finds joy playing in softball leagues, or learning about the human body.
“I guess every game you go out there just trying to do what you can, make the most of your opportunities,” Suemnick said. “I’ve really just been capitalizing on the opportunities I’ve been given.”
