NEW YORK — Dailyn Swain has covered a lot of miles in his college career, from Xavier in the Big East to the University of Texas in the SEC, to now the NBA.
But he’s never experienced one thing.
“Something you might need to know,” Swain said after being selected No. 15 overall by the Chicago Bulls in Tuesday’s NBA draft, “I’ve never had deep dish pizza.”
There will be no shortage of choices in the Windy City.
Swain spent two seasons at Xavier before following coach Sean Miller to UT. The 6-foot-6 All-SEC wing averaged 17.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists to help the Longhorns reach the Sweet 16. He became UT’s 21st first-round pick in school history.
“In the Big East was my freshman year, so learning impact, how important that is and trying to get on the court any way I could as a freshman,” Swain said when asked to describe his college journey. “Scrapping, being a scrappy guy, being a complimentary guy and doing what I had to do to play my role.
“Going to the SEC, I kind of became the guy, primary ball handler, scorer. I did a lot of the damage. All of them were steps in my career, and now I’m ready to make this next step, reset back to being rookie and do everything I can to impact the game and get better every single day.”
Earlier Tuesday, the Bulls selected North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson with the fourth pick.
“It’s a great feeling, especially with a guy like that,” Swain said. “He’s an electric player. He harms a lot of energy, something that everybody can feed off of, especially with him being so young. He’s going to be around the league a long time.”
While he finds a good pizza spot, Swain has another dilemma. His No. 3 jersey he wore at UT is currently taken by new teammate Josh Giddey.
“Man, I’ll definitely ask,” Swain said. “Maybe he’s feeling nice one time. But I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a No. 3 from a guy like him. He definitely deserves it, you know what I mean. He’s on his way up in the league and he’s been killing it. I just have to rock a new number, man.”