The Utah Jazz selected Omaha native John Tonje with the 53rd pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on Thursday.
Tonje is the first Omaha native drafted since Khyri Thomas in 2018. The Omaha Central product finished his six-year college career at Wisconsin, where he became one of the breakout stars of the 2024-25 season.
JT is off to Utah!
Congrats to #Badgers @johntonje1 on being drafted by the @utahjazz! #NBADraft || #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/f0CjeXwcCY
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) June 27, 2025
Tonje’s rise over the years has been remarkable. He began on the Freshman B team at Omaha North and averaged 1.6 points per game as a sophomore after transferring to Omaha Central. He broke out as a junior, averaging 13.6 points and 4.2 rebounds, then exploded as a senior, putting up 23.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while shooting 50% from the field, 38% from 3 and 82% from the free-throw line.
Tonje played grassroots basketball for the OSA Crusaders alongside Aurora native Baylor Scheierman, who spent three years at South Dakota State and two at Creighton before the Boston Celtics drafted him last summer with the 30th pick in the 2024 Draft.
However, Tonje was only lightly recruited, receiving two Division I scholarship offers: Colorado State and Omaha.
Tonje chose Colorado State, where he spent four seasons playing for Coach Niko Medved. He played 8.4 minutes per game as a freshman, contributing 3.6 points per game off the bench. He grew into a real rotation player as a sophomore, averaging 6.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game.
Tonje became a part-time starter as a junior and upped his scoring to 9.1 points on 25.3 minutes per game, improving his efficiency inside and outside the arc while logging 12 starts.
With David Roddy and his 19.2 points per game off to the NBA after the 2021-22 season, Tonje stepped into a featured scoring role alongside star point guard Isaiah Stevens and flourished, averaging 14.6 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 38.9% from 3 in 31.3 minutes per game, starting all 33 contests.
Following the season, Tonje chose to enter the transfer portal for his extra season of eligibility and landed at Missouri, though injuries limited him to eight games with the Tigers and ultimately resulted in a medical hardship season, giving him a sixth season.
Tonje entered the portal again after things didn’t work out in Columbia, initially committing to New Mexico before Wisconsin swooped in late. Needed wing scoring after AJ Storr departed for Kansas, the Badgers and Coach Greg Gard flipped Tonje’s commitment and brought him to Madison.
Tonje grew into an All-American during his final season of college basketball, averaging 19.6 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 46.5% from the field, 38.8% from 3 and 90.9% from the foul line. He led the Big Ten in total points and free throws while finishing second in 3-pointers made and fourth in points per game. The Badgers went 27-10 and finished fourth in the 18-team Big Ten.
Tonje turned heads early in the season with a 41-point explosion including a program record 21 free throws in a win over Arizona during nonconference play, and he closed out his collegiate career with a 37-point effort against BYU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, though it wasn’t enough to get a win.
Tonje received an invitation to the NBA Combine where he measured at 6-foot-4.75 without shoes and 211.8 pounds with a 6-foot-9 wingspan and an 8-foot-7 standing reach. He performed well in the shooting drills in Chicago and scored 17 points in the second five-on-five scrimmage after struggling in the first.
