Mike Wilkinson

Mike Wilkinson
Player information
Full name	Michael Joseph Wilkinson
birthday	October 1, 1981 (38 years and 335 days)
place of birth	Blue Mounds , Wisconsin , United States
size	204 cm
position	Power forward
college	Wisconsin (Madison)
Club information
society	Levski Sofia
league	NBL Bulgaria
Clubs as active
2001–2005 Wisconsin Badgers ( NCAA ) 2005–2007 Aris Thessaloniki 2007–2009 BK Chimki 2009–2010 Galatasaray 2010–2011 Locomotive Kuban 2011–2013 UNICS Kazan 2014 Levski Sofia 00000
National team
2006-2007	Macedonia

Michael Joseph "Mike" Wilkinson ( Macedonian Мајкл Вилкинсон ; born October 1, 1981 in Blue Mounds , Wisconsin ) is a native American basketball player . In 2006 he took the citizenship of Macedonia and represented this country at international games. He plays in the position of power forward .

Career as a player

college

Mike Wilkinson attended high school at Wisconsin Heights High School and was named Wisconsin Mr. Basketball for the top basketball player in his age group in Wisconsin in his senior year . He stayed in his state to study and in 2000 moved to the University of Wisconsin – Madison , whose university team Badgers had previously reached the Final Four of the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship for the first time since the 1940s . In his freshman year, Wilkinson suspended official games in the NCAA and reported " redshirted ", which serves to get another game year in the otherwise limited to four seasons college career. He then won under the new coach Bo Ryan together with the later NBA professionals Kirk Penney , Devin Harris and from 2002 Alando Tucker twice the regular season and in 2004 the final tournament in the Big Ten Conference , the oldest and one of the most popular conferences of the NCAA. The Badgers had last succeeded in doing this in the 1940s. In the nationwide finals, they reached the third round of Sweet Sixteen in 2003 and the quarterfinals of Elite Eight in 2005 . During his four-year season with the Badgers, he was the team's best rebounder every season and made it into the university's top ten statistics in eleven different categories, including most of the time played. After the end of his college career, however, he was not included in the NBA Entry Draft .

Europe

Wilkinson signed his first professional contract in Europe with Aris Thessaloniki, with whom he made it to the semi-final play-offs of the Greek league A1 Ethniki in 2006 and 2007 . The subsequent series for third place was won by a narrow margin and secured the bronze medal in the Greek championship. In the European club competition ULEB Cup he played with Aris in the final against Dynamo Moscow in 2006 and lost. He then moved for two years in the Russian Super League and has won the Basketball Association of Khimki 2008 Russian Cup winner. He reached the final of the Russian championship twice (2008, 2009) and lost both times to the series champions CSKA . He also reached the final of the unique VTB United League PromoCup 2008 with Chimki . At this tournament he was elected to the "All Tournament Team" of the best players of the eight participating Eastern European professional teams. In 2009 he reached the final of the ULEB Cup again with this club, which was now called the Eurocup, and also lost this against the Lithuanian club Lietuvos rytas Vilnius .

After a year in Turkey with Galatasaray from Istanbul , with which he narrowly missed the play-offs for the Turkish championship, Wilkinson returned to Russia for the 2010/11 season. Here he first played with Alando Tucker, his former teammate with the Badgers, for Lokomotive-Kuban, with whom he reached the semi-finals of the Russian Cup and the final of the EuroChallenge . From the 2011/12 season he will play for the 2010/11 Eurocup winner UNICS in the ULEB Euroleague 2011/12 , the highest European club competition, together with Kelly McCarty , with whom he already played at BK Chimki. Here they reached the quarter-final play-offs straight away, but they were lost to the favored FC Barcelona , who had previously lost only once in 16 group matches. After coach Yevgeny Paschutin left the club, UNICS was unable to continue earlier successes in the 2012/13 season. After the end of the 2012/13 season, Wilkinson received no new contract. At the end of January 2014 he signed a contract in Bulgaria with Levski from Sofia .

National team

Mike Wilkinson has been a Macedonian citizen since 2006 and participated with the Macedonian national team in qualifying for the 2007 European Championship finals .

Awards and Achievements

With the team

• Vice ULEB Eurocup: 2006, 2009
• Vice Russian Championship: 2008, 2009
• Russian Cup Winner: 2008

Personal awards

• Member of All Tournament Team VTB United League PromoCup 2008 .
• Participant in the All-Star-Game of the PBL 2011.

Web links

• WILKINSON, MIKE - Statistics on the websites of the ULEB (English)
• Michael Wilkinson Basketball Player Profile stats, biography, career - EUROBASKET - player profile on eurobasket.com (English)
• archive.fiba.com: Players - Michael J WILKINSON (MKD) - Overview of participation in FIBA tournaments (English)
• Mike Wilkinson Stats - Wisconsin Badgers - College play stats on statsheet.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ According to his profile at Eurobasket.com is his birthplace "Sauk Prairie," a coalesced location of the two towns Sauk City and Prairie du Sac in Sauk County , while en: Wisconsin Heights High School near Blue Mounds in Dane County is located .
2. ^ Mark Stewart, Badgers' Wilkinson decides to redshirt. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , November 4, 2000, accessed February 19, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Matt Lepay: The Voice: Unlikely champs set stage for Ryan era. University of Wisconsin – Madison , February 15, 2012, accessed February 19, 2012 . 
4. ^ Wisconsin Men's Basketball 2011-12 Record Book. (PDF (949 KB)) University of Wisconsin – Madison , pp. 123ff. , accessed on February 19, 2012 (update January 20, 2012). 
5. ^ Mike Wilkinson - Turkish Basketball League Player: 2009-2010 Regular Season. TBLStat.net, accessed on February 19, 2012 (English, seasonal statistics).