Gordon State College guard Christian Burnett celebrated signing with the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team this past weekend by going back to work.
Such is the life of a National Junior College Athletic Association Division I player who finally gets his first opportunity to play at the highest level of collegiate basketball.
The 6-foot-4 Burnett knew he was going to get his DI shot last fall, when he originally committed to fellow Horizon League member and in-state rival UW-Milwaukee.
He decided to reopen his recruitment last month because of a departure from the Panthers’ staff.
That sometimes happens when the head coach of a team is either let go or hired at a new school.
In this case, it had nothing to do with UWM coach Bart Lundy, who will enter his fifth season with the team in 2026-27 and has won 20 or more games three times.
It instead had to do with associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Jake Williams, who was the person Burnett became the closest to when deciding where to sign.
Williams left UWM in March to be an assistant under Eric Haut at Tarleton State in Texas.
“I felt like for me and out of respect for him, it was best for me to open my recruitment,” Burnett said. “I told [Lundy] that I still would like to come if that is the best fit for me, but that I wanted to find the best fit after I felt like the family environment over there kind of broke up.”
To be clear, Burnett has nothing against UWM, Lundy or any of the players who were going to be his teammates.
But when he essentially became a free agent again, UWGB was one of the first schools to contact him.
He visited Green Bay for two days last week. When he left April 21, everything he saw and heard gave him the family vibe he was seeking in his new team and the one he left in Milwaukee.
UWGB coach Doug Gottlieb and his staff spent so much time with him that Gottlieb even arrived past his scheduled interview time with the media before the Phoenix-Packers Steak Fry at Lambeau Field.
Burnett spoke to his family after the visit and decided to join UWGB a few days later.
“They reached out, they really wanted me, they showed they really needed me,” Burnett said. “Campus life is great. Coaches were great. I feel like all the coaches are on the same page, too.”
Despite a notable career at Baldwin High School in Georgia, a 4.5 grade-point average and interest from Ivy League schools, Burnett did not attract much recruiting attention.
He spent the 2023-24 season as a post grad at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas. He landed the next season at Gordon State, an NJCAA school in Barnesville, Georgia, which is about 60 miles from his hometown of Milledgeville.
Burnett has been a star for the Highlanders the past two seasons.
He started all 62 games during that span, averaging 17.9 points as a freshman and 18.1 as a sophomore.
Burnett shot 35.6% from 3 during his career, including 36.4% this season when he went 67-for-184 from beyond the arc.