Baggot: "Lucky to have her"
November 09, 2023 | Women's Basketball, Andy Baggot
Patibandla's athletic gifts make her a player to watch
MADISON, Wis. - It’s hard to know for certain what kind of impact freshman guard Leena Patibandla will have on the Wisconsin women’s basketball program this season.
She’s the youngest of five incoming rookies. She’s playing a position occupied by the only seniors on the 14-person roster. She’s not played a meaningful minute, not drained a clutch shot, not done anything to wow the masses.
For now, she’s a mystery from Massillon (Ohio) Jackson High School. All we have are the accounts and impressions of people who know her.
Yet that just might be enough to convince you that a uniquely gifted person is now in our midst.
These people have seen Patibandla dunk a volleyball, narrowly miss a triple-double – 16 points, 12 rebounds, nine blocked shots to go along with five assists – and set a school record with 137 blocks for her basketball career as a 6-foot-1 guard.
These people have been approached by Division I college recruiters who claim Patibandla could be an Olympic-caliber heptathlete in track and field given her record-setting prowess in the high jump and discus.
These people have heard from Division I volleyball coaches who tried to get Patibandla to change her athletic priorities even after she’d chosen the Wisconsin women’s basketball program over Virginia Tech and Columbia.
These people have put off retirement just so they could have an opportunity work with Patibandla, who’s been regarded as a phenom of sorts since grade school and just turned 18 in August.
Anthony Butch, the girls’ basketball coach at Jackson, has helped develop multiple Division I players, including former Ohio State standout Taylor Mikesell. Asked for an overview of Patibandla’s uncommon skill set, which translated to nearly two dozen scholarship offers for basketball, he sighed.
“Probably the best athlete I’ve ever coached and probably ever seen,’’ he said. “She has God-given gifts that every athlete would like to have.’’
Mary Kate Agona, the girls’ volleyball coach at Jackson, had a hard time finding the proper context for Patibandla’s all-around presence. She offered “exceptional’’ and “rare’’ before going deeper.
“I hesitate to put her in one box because she’s not a one-trick pony,’’ the coach said. “She’s a unicorn.’’
Matt Connelly, the track coach at Jackson, said Patibandla broke the school’s discus record six times as a senior – pushing it to 142 feet, 10 inches – and set the high jump standard of 5-7 as a junior, but what he remembers most is that she would go out of her way to help her younger teammates and competitors with tips and encouragement.
“People would say, ‘If she wasn’t so doggone nice, we’d hate her guts,’’’ he said. “Her best qualities are her work ethic and character.’’
Richard Nietzel was a prep track coach for 47 years before retiring from Jackson High School after Patibandla’s junior year. He stepped down after watching her place second in the high jump and discus in the state meet.
“From the time she was a freshman in high school, everybody knew she was something special,’’ Nietzel said. “She may be the best all-around female athlete that I’ve had the privilege to coach.’’
Nietzel, who began coaching in 1970, acknowledged that he put off retirement in order to have an opportunity to help Patibandla evolve.
“Those talents don’t come along very often in your coaching career,’’ he explained.
Nietzel was asked if Patibandla – who earned 12 varsity letters at Jackson – was aware of her numerous strengths and abilities.
“I think she knows that she’s good,’’ he said. “I don’t think she understands how good she is or how good she could be.’’
If Patibandla sounds like one of those too-good-to-be-true prospects, so be it. She was an “A’’ student at Jackson, the kind of kid who loaded up on AP courses and was a member of 10 extracurricular activities, including Math Honors Society, Science Honors Society and Spanish Honors Society.
Patibandla has an older sister, Divya, who was the valedictorian at Jackson before attending Ohio State. Both women plan to follow in the footsteps of their mother, Vani, who has a dental practice in Canton.
Leena already has a claim to fame with the Badgers. She’s the first American-born Indian to play for a Power Five program at the Division I level.
“Being able to represent my community at this level is something to be proud of,"’ she said. “I’m very thankful for having my family support me.’"
Those who know Patibandla say she has an outgoing personality, a remarkable work ethic and a humble sense of self.
“She’s one of those people you enjoy being around,’’ Nietzel said.
“With all her athletic ability and everything she’s been successful at, she could be a diva, but she’s not,’’ Agona said. “She’s a true team player. She’s just as happy for her teammates’ success as her own.
“She’s the real deal. She’s just a great, great human. Her teammates loved her.’’
UW coach Marisa Moseley recalled going to see Patibandla play for the first time and having Patibandla happily wave to her while shooting free throws during a game.
Moseley said Patibandla needs to get stronger and embrace a faster tempo, “but as far as what she was bringing to the table from a skillset standpoint, she has it. I don’t know that she has a ceiling.’’
Long before Patibandla helped lead Jackson to its first state basketball semifinal in 2022, Butch knew he had something special. He said he noticed her as a standout in the fourth grade.
“When you walk into a gym, your eye always goes toward Leena,’’ he said. “You watched how she moved and how she played and it was always special and unique at a very young age.’’
Seeing Patibandla graduate and move on to the college ranks gave Butch a melancholy jab.
“There are plays in our playbook we can’t run anymore without Leena,’’ he said.
Patibandla was asked why she was viewed as a sports prodigy at such an early age.
“I’ve always had a strangely athletic build,’’ she said.
To wit, Patibandla said her wingspan measures 6 feet, 6 inches and that she wears size 14 men’s shoes. She then held up her hands, showing off long, strong-looking fingers that can palm a basketball.
“Her length is unbelievable,’’ said Moseley, noting that she’ll use Patibandla primarily on the wing.
Agona said Patibandla was a quick study in volleyball who made up for her lack of fundamentals with “off the charts’’ athleticism.
“Some of the plays she made were just unreal,’’ Agona said. “It’s incredible to watch her compete.’’
Connelly marveled at how quickly Patibandla grasped the intricacies for the discus.
“Picked it up in a couple days,’’ he said. “I was just blown away. She’s such a special talent.’’
Connelly recounted how Patibandla once insisted on wearing a pair of old, tattered throwing shoes instead of a new pair she had ordered, but not received.
“She starts to wear them and starts to win,’’ he said. “By end of season, the soles are falling off and she’s taping and super-gluing them together. When her new shoes came, she didn’t want them.
“She had the absolute willingness to say, ‘We can adapt and overcome.’ That’s one of her greatest strengths. Very few people are able to do it like that.’’
Nietzel said he first heard the drumbeat for Patibandla when she was in the seventh grade. He emphasized how rare it is to come across a teenager with such explosiveness in events as diverse as the discus and high jump.
“I’m a little prejudice, but I think her best sport is track,’’ Nietzel said, adding that he used her in the long jump, hurdles and relays. “I swear, if I had I asked her to jump over an 8-foot fence she would have given it a try.’’
Patibandla said basketball has long been her favorite sport.
“Always had a love for it,’’ she said. “I always wanted to play at a big level, compete at a high level.’’
Just the same, Patibandla remains intrigued by her potential in track, especially at UW where celebrated assistants Dave Astrauskas (throws) and Nate Davis (multi-events) have developed Olympians and multiple NCAA champions for Mick Byrne, the director of men’s and women’s track and cross country.
“If I could walk on the track team, I’d do it,’’ she said.
It remains to be seen how Patibandla’s career at Wisconsin unfolds, but one thing seems certain.
“You’re lucky to have her,’’ Agona said.
