Has Wisconsin's primary recruiting focus shifted from high school to the transfer portal?

USA Today

25-04-2025

Has Wisconsin's primary recruiting focus shifted from high school to the transfer portal?
For the past two to three seasons, the Wisconsin Badgers have been one of the most active teams in the transfer portal.
That trend has continued this offseason, where the program currently ranks No. 17 in Evan Miyakawa's transfer activity rating, plus No. 26 in his ranking of incoming transfer classes. The graphic, as shared below, highlights a trend that is becoming more and more prevalent nationwide: Many college basketball programs, including Wisconsin, have allocated nearly all of their recruiting resources towards transfer portal talent instead of high school recruits. This is a major shift from the 2010s, where high school recruiting was all that mattered when it came to roster construction.
What has caused this shift to happen? It's been a mix of NIL, fewer restrictions on transferring, and less of a draw to loyalty. The result is programs getting access to players with years of development, which can be more beneficial than high school recruits who are starting from square one. This is extremely important for Wisconsin, considering it plays in a challenging Big Ten.
The Big Ten is known for its defense and physicality. Many high school recruits that the conference's programs land needed a couple of years to bulk up and learn the defensive fundamentals necessary to excel in the league. Five-star recruits are obviously the exception to this dynamic, but those high-level prospects don't come often to Wisconsin, or to any Big Ten team for that matter. Wisconsin's only consensus five-star high school recruit since 2010 was Sam Dekker, who attended Sheboygan Area Lutheran High School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Since Dekker, head coach Greg Gard has only landed three four-star recruits, including incoming 2025 commit Zach Kinziger. That's not a ton of high-school talent for a program that made multiple Final Four runs and has been an NCAA Tournament regular since 2000. Because of this, the Badgers relied on three-star and low four-star recruits who were willing to be patient with their development and learn how to play in the Big Ten. That isn't as common anymore for the mentioned reasons, as players can now transfer as many times as they'd like without having to redshirt. We even saw it this past season, when composite four-star recruit Daniel Freitag didn't play much during his freshman season with the Badgers, then opted to transfer to Buffalo, as opposed to waiting on the bench for a year or two.
Wisconsin has found success in the portal long before it was common practice to prioritize recruiting in that area. Former Badger and current Utah Jazz player Micah Potter transferred to Madison from Ohio State in 2018, then led the Badgers to a Big Ten title in 2019-20. Those early experiences in the portal helped Gard and his staff become comfortable when transferring became a more popular decision in the early 2020s.
Gard and his staff added both Kamari McGee and Max Klesmit from the portal in 2023, each who both later became important pieces on both the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 teams. Not only did the portal help fill necessary gaps in the roster, but it also gave former in-state standouts a chance to play for their home state's flagship school. Neither Klesmit nor McGee was a highly touted high-school recruit, but both played well enough at the mid-major levels to garner the attention of Gard and other members of the Wisconsin coaching staff.
The question now becomes, where does Wisconsin go from here? Does it make sense for the program to allocate all of its resources to transfer portal recruiting, or should it still prioritize landing in-state players? The answer is complicated. Wisconsin can't abandon high-school recruiting, especially with how talented in-state high-school basketball has become in recent years. Landing players from Wisconsin that fit Gard's new scheme is crucial. That's why fans can still get excited about players like Kinziger, who is joining the program from De Pere, Wisconsin. His ability to knock down threes and play solid defense guarantees him a shot to make the rotation his freshman year.
Looking forward, there are numerous talented players from the state of Wisconsin in both the 2026 and 2027 recruiting classes. Oregon High School standout Vaughn Karvala is the state's top recruit in the class of 2026. He's garnering lots of interest from Power Four programs. In 2027, both Milwaukee guard Dooney Johnson and Kaukauna wing Donovan Davis rank in the class' top-50, per 247Sports. Both could potentially be as high as five-stars by the end of their recruiting cycle. 'Can't miss' players like both Johnson and Davis are the types of players that Wisconsin should put all of their effort into recruiting out of high school. Both of these players have NBA upside and would take a lot less time to develop than a traditional in-state three-star recruit.
Overall, Wisconsin has done an excellent job adapting to the changing times in college basketball. Gard and his staff have hit on many of their portal additions, primarily finding players who were under-recruited and lower-ranked in the portal. John Tonje, who averaged 19.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game for the Badgers last season, is a perfect example. The coaching staff has expanded their focus from developing high-school recruits to also focusing on doing so with transfers. That success has helped the program survive and adapt in the sport's changing landscape.
As for what the program should prioritize moving forward, it all depends on the talent available. For most seasons, the portal will have an excess amount of talent that Wisconsin can tap into to reload its lineup, as it has done this offseason. However, in years where the in-state recruits are especially gifted, like 2027, it might make more sense for that to be the place where Badgers extend their resources. Either way, it should depend year-to-year which recruiting method to focus on. It should be an area where Gard and his staff will have to constantly evaluate and pivot.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion