While we wait for Blake Griffin  to step up to the podium…

Albert Lea’s own Ben Woodside, the former NDSU guard, is watching tonight’s draft with his family from a hotel room in Chicago, where he has been living and working out the past two months because that’s where his agents are based.

There’s an outside chance somebody — Portland perhaps, or maybe even the Wolves? — takes a flyer on him in the second round.

But Woodside — the guy who scored 37 in that NCAA first-round tourney loss to Kansas at the Metrodome — isn’t betting on it.

“To be honest, I don’t expect much to happen,” he said earlier today. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to get in front of a number of team. I’m not nervous about anything. I’m not expected to get draft anyway. But I’ll be watching.”

Woodside said he worked out for 10 teams — San Antonio, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, Utah, Portland, Sacramento, Utah, Denver and the Wolves — leading  up to tonight.

“A lot more than I expected coming out of college,” he said. “I’ve been racking up the frequent flyer miles. Hopefully, I have enough for a free trip.”

He probably won’t have to pay his own way to Las Vegas next month. If he doesn’t get drafted, he’ll likely be there as a free-agent signee for someone summer-league team.

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