Big Ten Roundup (Sept. 22): Chase Audige Signs with Wizards, Wisconsin 5-Star Commits to Duke
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Following his breakout senior season for coach Chris Collins and the Northwestern Wildcats in 2022-23, Chase Audige has signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Washington Wizards.
Audige originally signed with the Miami Heat as an undrafted free agent, and played with Miami during NBA Summer League action, where he had some very impressive performances.
In other Big Ten basketball news, the No. 1 high school basketball player in the state of Wisconsin in the class of 2024 — Kon Knueppel — committed to Duke on Thursday, officially picking the blue blood over his hometown Badgers.
Here's everything you need to know in today's Big Ten Roundup:
Chase Audige Signs with Wizards
After Audige dropped 18 points in just 20 minutes for Miami during NBA Summer League action, many thought the reigning Eastern Conference champions would be delighted to keep the former Wildcat around.
However, the 6-foot-4 Northwestern guard didn't stick around in South Beach. Instead, he's headed to the nation's capital to play for the Washington Wizards on an Exhibit 10 contract.
For those understandably asking what an Exhibit 10 deal is, here's an explanation from Sam Jarden of The Sporting News:
"An Exhibit 10 contract is a one-year, minimum salary contract with no other bonuses. The Exhibit 10 attachment gives NBA teams the ability to convert the contract into a Two-Way deal, but only if they do it before the start of the regular season."
"They are usually non-guaranteed, allowing teams to waive the player without taking a cap hit. In that situation, the player would earn a bonus of between $5,000 to $50,000 if they remain with the team's G League affiliate for 60 days."
"Exhibit 10s are handy to teams for a couple of reasons. For one, they allow the flexibility to either retain the player on a minimum deal or convert the contract to a Two-Way depending on their performance. They also allow for the player to be waived at no cap penalty if the team isn't sold on their potential."
That's all a long way of saying that this is the minimum of minimum deals that Audige could have signed. Washington has very little capital committed to him, and it's up to Audige himself to prove to the Wizards that they need to give him a more player-friendly contract in the future.
But still, it's a starting point in the NBA, and not one that many would have imagined for Audige after his first two seasons at Northwestern were less than ideal. He averaged 14.1 points per game this past season, and more impressively, he tallied 2.4 steals per game on his way to being named the 2022-23 Co-Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
Kon Knueppel Commits to Duke
While news had already broken that Knueppel was unlikely to stay in-state with the Badgers, it still must have been tough for Wisconsin basketball fans and coach Greg Gard to see what happened yesterday. One of the best high school basketball prospects in state history picked the proverbial "Death Star" of college hoops over Wisconsin.
Knueppel is a 6-foot-5 forward from Milwaukee, and is entering his senior year at Wisconsin Lutheran High School. The five-star is ranked right behind Indiana basketball recruiting target Liam McNeeley as the No. 16 overall player in the class of 2024, according to 247 Sports.
Gard and the Badgers currently have two commits in the class of 2024, having earned commitments from four-star guard Daniel Freitag and three-star forward Jack Robison.
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