Gonzaga center takes long, arduous route to Final Four

The Final Four isn’t must-see television in Poland, but it was a decade or so ago to Przemek Karnowski, who was in his early teens at the time.

Karnowski, around 14 at the time, shut the lights off in his room and watched the games on his computer in the wee hours of the morning.

“I was just hoping my parents were asleep,” he said.

This year, more than a handful of Poles likely will stay up to watch the broadcast of at least one of the two semifinal games. The 7-foot-1 Karnowski, who also plays for the Polish National team, is the starting center for Gonzaga, which plays South Carolina on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Karnowski said he’s heard the games will be televised back home.

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“The TV station and our Polish National team and some other people came to the conclusion that it would be very beneficial to show it,” Karnowski said on Thursday. “I’m just happy people will be able to see it. It actually will be at midnight so it won’t be super, super late.”

For Karnowski, this Final Four is the culmination of a long, unusual and, at times, painful career.

Growing up in Torun, Poland, Karnowski had never heard of Gonzaga until it started recruiting him, so he didn’t know what, or where, the school was.

“When I first looked for Gonzaga, I thought it was a city and I thought it was in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “So I bought a big, big map of the United States to see where all the universities were that were recruiting me.”

He looked for 20 minutes for Gonzaga in and around Washington, D.C., before he and his parents turned to the Internet.

“We found out Gonzaga is not a city,” Karnowski said, smiling. “It’s actually Spokane and it’s actually not D.C., it’s Washington on the west side. We didn’t have a hard time finding any other schools.”

As he found out more about Gonzaga, Karnowski was intrigued. Under coach Mark Few, the Bulldogs had built a reputation for recruiting internationally and developing players.

So Karnowski signed and arrived in Spokane in 2012. As a freshman, Karnowski played behind Kelly Olynyk, now with the Celtics, and then started the next two seasons.

His basketball career, however, nearly ended last season because of a debilitating back problem. Karnowski had trouble even getting out of bed, much less running down a court, and he played in only five games.

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He underwent surgery, developed an infection and lost nearly 60 pounds.

“There was a very high probability that he was not going to play basketball again,” Few said on Thursday. “I mean, he couldn’t even get in or out of a car, or really walk.

“And then I was really worried about depression and things like that. Emotionally, he wasn’t in a great place. Going from those dark days to right now, it literally is miraculous and I’m not using the term lightly.”

Karnowski was granted a medical redshirt season by the NCAA. He was cleared medically to play last October and is averaging 12 points a game for the Bulldogs, who are 36-1 and the No. 1 seed in the West Region.

Making it as a player to the Final Four “is a great feeling,” he said. “The atmosphere of the entire event is awesome, how (many) people want to come here and watch it, and at the same time, watch it in front of their TVs at home.”

Even in Poland.