ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester’s Isaiah Stewart is close to realizing his lifelong dream of playing professional basketball. The former McQuaid star, who played just one season at the University of Washington, is a projected first-round pick in next month’s NBA Draft.

"I'm looking forward to playing at that level," he said. "I feel like I can play in an NBA game tomorrow. I feel like I'm ready. I feel like my game fits the NBA game today. I'm confident in my game and what I bring so I'm looking forward to that level. I know it's going to be fun."

Stewart continues to prepare for upcoming pre-draft workouts.

"I don't feel pressure," he said. "I've already played in front of a lot of people. A lot of scouts. Everybody has been seeing my game since I was in high school. So it's sort of like just showing up and doing what I got to do."

With the entire process delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been a challenge for prospects to stay ready physically and mentally.  ​

"I feel like this draft class is going to be unique because of what we're going through so it's very easy to get distracted, you know you got to stay mentally strong," he said. "You got to stay locked in and you got to keep that focus on the bigger goal.”

For the past several months Stewart has been training under the watchful eye of Fairport head coach Scott Fitch. They've worked together before as part of USA basketball's national program.

"We went over his whole game. We broke it down with video. We went over everything. Every skill set. Everything he did," said Fitch. "There's certain things he was good at but we want to get great and there's certain things that we thought he struggled at that we want to improve on."

"I'm looking forward to showing my all-around game and whatever I need to get better at and work at," said Stewart. "I'm still going to work on it so I'm looking forward to showing everything."

The NBA draft is set for November 18.