Pritzl, Kowalczyk reunite after recruiting snub

Toledo assistant coach Brandon Pritzl during a Mid-American Conference men’s basketball game between Eastern Michigan University and the University of Toledo at EMU’s George Gervin GameAbove Center in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Feb. 6.Brandon Pritzl did not like Tod Kowalczyk.

It was 2009. Pritzl was a senior at De Pere High School in Green Bay, Wis., and Kowalczyk — a 1985 De Pere graduate — was the head coach at Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Pritzl wanted desperately to play for the hometown team. But it took just one conversation for Kowalczyk to put an end to Pritzl’s dream, delivering a cold, sobering message: Pritzl was not good enough to play Division I college basketball. (Kowalczyk’s father, Rod,…