Noah Pagotto, West Texas A&M. NCAA Men's Division II.
Noah joined us on the April 2023 Tour this year from Illawarra, where he had a great NBL1 season for the Hawks. Noah grew up playing his junior basketball for Illawarra and represented NSW at the National level on multiple occasions, most recently winning a Silver Medal at the U/20s Tournament in 2023.
What college are you at right now? How did you get recruited there?
I'm at West Texas A&M, we are in a small town called Canyon in Texas. It is a Division II University in the NCAA. In terms of my recruitment, Sepo was really helpful here. I had a few coaches show interest before I came on tour, but after the first tournament in Chicago, Coach Brown offered me a full scholarship after seeing me play — it all happened really quickly.
How did the AUSA Tour help you get recruited?
Really it provided me with the platform to show what I could do on the court. No matter how much film you send or coaches you approach, they all want to see you play live. Sepo was really helpful in the process, giving me advice about different colleges and what questions to ask.
Tell us a little bit about your college experience so far.
Well, to start, we live in a four-person suite. I have my own room which is great, and in our suite we have two bathrooms and a big common area. The cool thing is all four of us are on the basketball team. We have had a great start to the season — 3–0, and we are nationally ranked #7 in the country.
I have found the academic workload pretty straightforward; I am doing really well in all my classes to date and I have actually changed my major to engineering. Being away from home has been a challenge, especially being away from family and friends. I talk to my family every other day, sometimes it can be hard with my schedule and the time difference. It has really helped that I am a freshman with three other Aussies, we all get along really well and it has made the transition to the US a lot easier — that's for sure.
Any advice to young players who are trying to play college basketball?
Make sure your grades are good. You need to keep a B average at least and make sure you are taking the right classes — Sepo can help advise you with this. Secondly, just work hard, be obsessed with getting better and try to find ways to challenge yourself every day. It is competitive over here, you need to find a way to stand out.